Wildlife & nature

in maps and charts

British scientists are heading to the Arctic for an audacious attempt to discover whether engineering can help to save the region’s fast-vanishing sea ice.

2 days ago

dispatch | Catherine Philp

Down by the harbour in Longyearbyen, the crew of the Polargirl prepared for the day’s voyage, a round trip across the fjord to the Russian coal-mining settlement of Barentsburg on Norway’s Svalbard archipelago.

INSPIRATION

If you weren’t one of the lucky souls who got to gaze at the northern lights from here in the UK recently — it was possible even as far south as Basingstoke — then a trip to Scandinavia, Iceland or Finland in search of nature’s great firework show may still be high on your must-do list. Astronomers report that a peak in the solar cycle is imminent, promising the most spectacular and reliable displays over northern Europe for a decade from the start of next year.

in pictures

As very real conflicts are raging in many parts of the world, some of the knock-on effects are felt in the high Arctic. Some 650 miles south of the North Pole lies the Svalbard archipelago, a Norwegian territory with ever-increasing geopolitical significance.

In the cold, vast expanse above the Arctic Circle, a new frontier is emerging between the East and West that could soon threaten the security of Europe.

CRUISE

A narrow weather window opened just long enough for us to fly to a place we were never supposed to be. Inclement combinations of wind and pack ice meant that to board the AE Expeditions ship Sylvia Earle, we had to fly to Resolute Bay rather than our intended point of embarkation further south.

Obituary

Between Point Barrow in Alaska and Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, lies a stretch of freezing water that was once an unbroken sheet of ice. Years of global warming has since melted large swathes of the 3,800-mile ice cap and reduced it to a sea of shifting floes, making crossing it by foot or sled impossible.

An adventurer from Edinburgh has helped to set two world records by kayaking the Arctic Ocean’s treacherous Northwest Passage.

From Our Correspondent

Were it not for the icicles hanging from the ceiling you could at first glance mistake the elongated pool for some obscure Olympic swimming venue.

GREENLAND

It was Monday afternoon in the settlement of Ittoqqortoormiit in eastern Greenland and I was watching life unfold. The town’s matriarch was on her way home, flashing me a big friendly smile (albeit toothless) as she passed, wrapped up in a neon pink puffer jacket and revving the engine of her quad bike to speed up the hill. Watching her go from outside his red house halfway up Mikip Aqqulaa street was the local carpenter Marti, who I paused to speak to. He told me there was only one thing on his mind — dinner. “I hope it’s polar bear curry tonight, that’s my favourite.”