emerging arctic landscapes: reflections

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Emerging Arctic Landscapes... Reflections In-retrospect: our travel in the high north has given me a better and more nuanced understanding of the high complexity in this re- gion. Economics, culture, politics, enviroment and industry are the quintessential topics and challeng- es here. In my reflections id like to foucus on this regions border land- scape. And the varied and overlap- ing activity a cross, around and between the muncipalities, country borders and the new future trajectories.

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Emerging Arctic Landscapes: Reflections

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Page 1: Emerging Arctic Landscapes: Reflections

Emerging Arctic Landscapes...Reflections

In-retrospect: our travel in the high north has given me a better and more nuanced understanding of the high complexity in this re-gion. Economics, culture, politics, enviroment and industry are the quintessential topics and challeng-es here. In my reflections id like to foucus on this regions border land-scape. And the varied and overlap-ing activity a cross, around and between the muncipalities, country borders and the new future trajectories.

Page 2: Emerging Arctic Landscapes: Reflections

In Andrei Tarkovsky 1979 movie Stalker, the pro-tagonists has to pass through a militarized bor-der then to enter a place called “the Zone”, an otherwise mundane rural area scattered with ruined buildings, where normal laws of physics no longer apply, to encounter “the Room”, said to grant the deepest, innermost wishes of any-one who steps inside.

To me the Zone is a place of tranquillity and peace a demiliterized place were no political, ideological, social and economic doctrine defines and delineate the human reality and understanding of space.

- A part that forms the outer edge of something.-The line or frontier area separating political divisions or geographic regions; a boundary.-The line that separates one country, state, province, etc., from another; frontier line.-Boundaries between continents.-An enclosing boundary.-The space enclosed boundary.-The point beyond which an action, state, or condition is likely to begin or occur.-Dictionary definition

So what is a Border?bound, edge, fringe, margin, rim, skirt, verge.

Global Borders

This is Earth, a place of blue nitrogen skies, oceans of liquid water, cool forests, and soft meadows. Earths borders are clearly defined and has evolved through geological and biological natural process-es over billions of years.

This is Earth, clearly defined and domi-nated by human boundaries through po-litical and economical systems, resourch based, historical, sociological and cultur-all processes, through natural and artifi-cial selection, over thousands of years.

Page 3: Emerging Arctic Landscapes: Reflections

BorderlandMuncipality BordersFinnmark has 19 municipalities bor-dering, stretching and crossing through the landscape.Meeting the Finish and Russianborders in the eastern part of thecounty.

Finland

Finnmark

Norway Finland

District BordersThe reindeer hurding activity strech-es over 76 districts in Norway. From East Finmark to Southern Trøndelag and Hedemark. There is no restric-tions for the reindeers crossing the different muncipalities as longthey are inside there grazing district.

BorderZoneThe Norwegian and Russian goverment`s has agreed to open up for special borderzone passes and easy border crossing for 40.000 Russians and 9000 Norwegians, living within 30 kilometers distance from the 196 kilometers long Nor-wegian-Russian border. The Schen-gen-agreement opens up for such regulations in border areas. When this agreement is effectuated it will be among the first areas along the Schengen border where there is established a borderzone.

Crossing BordersThe reindeer hurding is a borderless activity, almost. Norway and Finland has an agreement that the reindeer flock can graze 2-5km on each side of Norwegian and Finish ground. This agreement is only between Norway, Finland and Sweden.

RussiaFinland

Page 4: Emerging Arctic Landscapes: Reflections

2011 2030 2070

The Arctic Ice Border

The melting of the sea ice in the Arctic, is the clearest sign so far that global warming, has taken a sudden and enor-mous leap forward, in one of the most ominous developments yet in the onset of climate change. The Arctic ice will possibly be all gone by 2070, but if these new rates of melting are maintained, the Arctic ice will be gone decades before that.

New Yokohama Route

New San Fransisco Route

Murmansk

Kirkenes

Current Yokohama route

Current San Francico route

Rotterdam

New Arctic TrajectoriesAs the Arctic ice border melts, new alternate shipping routes will appear. At present, there are two routes in the Arctic Ocean, the Northern Sea Route extending along the northern parts of Rus-sia and the Northwest Passage traveling along the coastal areas of Canada.Northwest Passage

Northern Sea Route Were do we go from here?Melting of ice in the Arctic Ocean is paradoxical: a serious threat to natural environment and ecology is accompanied by expectation for the appearance of new shipping routes. We also know that as the ice melts there are estimated huge oil and gas reservs in the region. To me it says something about our civilization determination to deny the environmental and ecological consequences that the extracting of oil and gas will have.