The Environment and Industry of the Artic Region

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The Environment and Industry of the Artic Region

Introduction.

The Artic is a region at the upper most tip of the Northern Hemisphere. The

Artic includes the area around Greenland, USSR, Canada and Alaska. Much of

the Artic circle is permanently frozen ice.

The Artic is a pristine environment, clean and void of human interference.

However as humans move into these areas and begin to extract what ever they

can be balance can be tipped, resulting in pollution and destruction of the

environment.

Climate.

The Artic winters much longer than the Summer. In the winter the sun never

rises and in the summer it never sets. The average temperature for the

Artic is zero degrees or less.

Industry and the Artic.

There was once a time when the land of the Artic Circle was considered

useless and only hospitable to those native to it. However once vast

quantities of oil and fish had been found there was a rush of interest in

the land.

Fishing in the Artic has occurred for thousands of years but in recent

years man has been fishing the Artic; in greater numbers and taking more

fish. Professional fishermen are taking all kinds of fish as well as whales

and seals. In some areas fishermen have become so efficient at their job

that quotas have needed to be put on to limit or stop the capture of

certain animals.

There are many mineral deposits within the Artic Circle. In Russia: nickel,

iron ore, apatite, diamonds, gold, tin, coal, mica, and tungsten. In

Sweden: iron ore. In Greenland: lead, zinc, molybdenum and cryolite.

Spitsbergen: coal. Canada: uranium, copper, nickel, lead, zinc, tungsten

and iron ore. The digging out of minerals would inevitably disturb the

natural habitat as well as the environment there would be a great cost to

maintain the site. Industry that is designed to process various minerals

have waste products that would be most unwelcome in the Artic. A good

example of this is the pollution that has arisen as a result of the

smelting of metals in the Artic. It is for this reason that there is very

little industry in the Artic. However Russia, Canada, Greenland and Iceland

have several small scale manufacturing plants.

The largest industry in the Artic is oil. The rush began in 1968 when a

large oil field was discovered, there was a great deal of protest but the

development went ahead.

Oil extracted from the felid makes its way to Port Valdez via a 1300

kilometre pipeline. Although steps were taken to limit the pipelines affect

on the environment it still disrupts the migration of caribou.

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