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The Changing Arctic Environment: The Arctic Messenger PDF

453 Pages·2015·3.92 MB·English
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THE CHANGING ARCTIC ENVIRONMENT This accessible and engagingly written book describes how national and international scientific monitoring programmes brought to light our present understanding of Arctic environmental change and how these research results were successfully used to achieve international legal actions to lessen some of the resulting environmental impacts. David P. Stone was intimately involved in many of these scientific and political activities. He tells a powerful story, using the metaphor of the “Arctic Messenger” – an imaginary being warning us of the folly of ignoring Arctic environmental change. This book will be of great interest to anyone concerned about the Arctic’s fate, including lifelong learners interested in the Arctic and the natural environment generally; students studying environmental science and policy; researchers of circumpolar studies, indigenous peoples, national and international environmental management and environmental law; and policy makers and industry professionals looking to protect (or exploit) Arctic resources. David P. Stone received a degree in zoology from the University of Aberdeen in 1973 and a PhD in oceanography from the University of British Columbia. From 1977 to 1980, David worked as an oceanographic scientist in the Canadian Arctic. From 1980 to 2004, he managed environmental research for the Northern Affairs Programme of the Canadian government, becoming director of Northern Science and Contaminant Research. In 1989, he became heavily involved in the development of circumpolar cooperation under the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy that subsequently became the Arctic Council. One of its key activities was the establishment in 1991 of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), where he served as Canada’s delegate on the governing working group until 2004 and as its chair between 1993 and 1997. During this time, AMAP set up a circumpolar monitoring capacity and produced its first circumpolar assessment of the state of the Arctic environment. From 1990 to 1994, David co-chaired the task force on persistent organic pollutants (POPs) under the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’s (UNECE) Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) and led the working group that prepared the negotiating text used by the convention’s governing executive to negotiate a legally binding protocol under the convention. He participated in the negotiation of the Stockholm Convention on POPs, and after retirement, he was retained by the convention secretariat to assist in the development of a process to measure through global monitoring whether environmental levels of POPs are falling as a result of the new international controls. In 1997, he was instrumental in developing a virtual University of the Arctic based on existing circumpolar institutions. The Arctic Council formally announced the creation of the university in September 1998. In 2001, David received an award from Jean Chrétien, the then–prime minister of Canada, in recognition of his work on developing and managing Arctic contaminants research and on using the results to achieve negotiation of global agreements. T H E C H A N G I N G A R C T I C E N V I R O N M E N T The Arctic Messenger David P. Stone 32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013-2473, USA Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107094413 © David P. Stone 2015 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2015 Printed in the United States of America A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Stone, David P. (Oceanographic scientist) The changing Arctic environment : the Arctic Messenger / David P. Stone (former chair of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP)). pages cm ISBN 978-1-107-09441-3 (Hardback) 1. Arctic regions–Environmental conditions. 2. Environmental monitoring–Arctic regions. 3. Climatic changes– Arctic regions. 4. Pollution–Environmental aspects–Arctic regions. 5. Environmental impact analysis–Arctic regions. I. Title. GE160.A68S76 2015 363.700911′3–dc23 2014042076 ISBN 978-1-107-09441-3 Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. For Thérèse, who insisted that the Arctic tale be told, and for Dáithí and Scellig, who continue to enlighten our lives Contents Acknowledgements Acronyms 1Personal Beginnings Part I:The Changing Arctic 2The Arctic Messenger Part II:Working Together 3The Arctic Messenger Gains a Voice: The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme Part III:What Is the Present State of Knowledge? 4Radioactivity 5Heroic Efforts 6Acidification and Arctic Haze 7Stratospheric Ozone Depletion 8Persistent Organic Pollutants and Heavy Metals (Including Mercury) 9Conducting Marine Science in the Arctic 10Climate Change in the Arctic Part IV:What Does All This Mean? 11Thoughts on Education, the Training of Arctic Scientists, and Arctic Research 12The Long and the Short of It: Has the Arctic Messenger Been Noticed? What Can Be Done? 13Epilogue: Keeping the Rovaniemi Flame Alive Appendix I:The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Appendix II:What Will Happen in the Future If We Do Nothing or If We Try Very Hard to Aggressively Reduce GHG Emissions: Projected Change Under Different Emission Scenarios Appendix III:Some Geophysical Background Notes Related to Climate and Weather Appendix IV:Orbital Forcing Appendix V:The Concept of Commitment Bibliography Credits Index Acknowledgements It is a humbling experience to reflect on the multitude of people who developed and assessed the knowledge on which the Arctic Messenger’s tale is based. Even if I could list all the people, too many would still be unacknowledged. I relied very heavily on my own memory and files for the historical and scientific context of how our understanding of the Arctic environment has changed over the last thirty years and of how governments have reacted to this knowledge. However, I often needed help to check facts, find ways to fill in gaps or quite simply to kick my memory into life. The kind cooperation of all the staff at the AMAP secretariat in Oslo proved invaluable. I was given access to AMAP archives dating back to twenty-five years ago, which not only revived my memories but also added fresh details from this period. Margaret Davis spent hours anticipating my needs by retrieving and organising historical files. Her help saved me many hours of time and likely of frustration. I also much appreciated the help of Grethe Øksnes and Inger Utne, who effortlessly provided any practical assistance I needed at the secretariat. On the science side, the manuscript was much improved through technical reviews provided by Robert Corell, Martin Forsius, Derek Muir, Lars-Otto Reiersen, Dáithí Stone, Per Strand and Simon Wilson. All are experts in one or more of the main topics covered in the book. I am much indebted to all these people for pointing out errors or suggesting improvements and also for their support for the book being published. An early draft of the manuscript contained three climate chapters that were reviewed by Dáithí Stone. He promptly gave his father a much-needed lesson in humility by telling him to throw the chapters away and to start again, which indeed I did! Thanks are also due to AMAP for providing permission to adapt figures used in the book from AMAP sources and for carrying out the work to modify existing AMAP graphics for their new life. I also much appreciate being able to use two previously unpublished figures provided by Dáithí Stone and one by Robert Corell. I am deeply grateful to Caitríona Uí Ógáin and Sophia Kakkavas (Philomel Productions) for graciously providing their permission to use three poetic fragments from Footsteps From Another World by the late Dáithí Ó hÓgáin. Dáithí was a much-respected folklorist, author and poet. Footsteps From Another World was his only collection of poetry in English. It gives those of us who do not speak Irish Gaelic a tantalizing glimpse of what we have missed. Anyone who is tempted to seek out this collection in English will not be disappointed. The last step in bringing a book to the public is of course publication and I am much indebted to all of the staff at Cambridge University Press and their contractors who were involved in this process. In particular, I would like to acknowledge the help of Matt Lloyd, for his early encouragement and decision to promote publication by Cambridge; Holly Turner, for never being impatient with a novice author; Rituleen Dhingra for valuable advice; and Paul Smolenski, who managed the entire production process. I am also grateful for the kind attention of Britto Fleming Joe and his colleagues at SPi Global. I very much appreciated the help of Christopher Stolle for his efficient and sensitive copyediting. He made this process an educational and enjoyable experience. I will never again look at a text in quite the same way and will always be on the lookout for a “dangling modifier”. Finally, my overriding debt is to Thérèse, my wife of more than forty years. She insisted that this book be written and never relaxed in her enthusiasm. On several occasions, my confidence in the project came close to vaporizing. By one way or another, Thérèse allowed me no escape. She also prepared the list of acronyms and, more importantly, the index. When the book returned from copyediting and for final examination of the proofs, Thérèse was seated at her desk, carefully scrutinizing every word.

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This accessible and engagingly written book describes how national and international scientific monitoring programmes brought to light our present understanding of Arctic environmental change, and how these research results were successfully used to achieve international legal actions to lessen some
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Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.