Approved by

• Main Authors: Kristian Åtland, E Isbn, Johan Aas, Jan Erik, Torp Director
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: Arctic; Canada; Ice cap; Polar Ice Cap; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.459.3117; http://rapporter.ffi.no/rapporter/2010/01097.pdf

English summary The melting of the polar ice cap is opening previously inaccessible parts of the Arctic region to resource extraction and marine transportation. If the retreat of the Arctic sea ice continues at its current pace, ice conditions on the northern coasts of Russia and Canada may at some point allow for near year-round shipping through the Northeast and Northwest Passages. Simultaneously, commercially important fish stocks such as cod and capelin are gradually moving north, due to increasing water temperatures. And, perhaps most importantly, technologies are being developed for the utilization of petroleum resources on the Arctic continental shelf, which holds an estimated 31 percent of the world’s undiscovered reserves of natural gas, and 13 percent of the world’s undiscovered reserves of oil. As a result of these developments, the Arctic is emerging as a region of major geopolitical