Time - INT (2022-05-23)

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54 TIME May 23/May 30, 2022

unusual winter weather conditions—rain, wind,
insuffi cient snow—have in recent years forced Idi-
tarod dog mushers to reroute or stop early.
Overall, the Arctic is warming four times as fast
as the rest of the planet. In mid-March, there was
at least one day where temperatures hit as high
as 30°C (54°F) above the March average near the
North Pole. Within a few years, says Diana Haecker,
the Nome-based editor of Mushing Magazine, the
Iditarod may not be able to fi nish in Nome at all.

Nome, one of the U.S.’s northernmost
ports, into an entirely diff erent
kind of destination. Layered
with thick ice most of the
year, the Arctic Ocean has
historically been all but
impassable, but warm-

seen sea-ice volume
reduced by two-
thirds since mea-
surements were
first taken in

1958. A 2020
      study published
      in Nature Cli-
      mate Change
      predicts mostly
      ice-free Arc-
      tic summers as
      early as 2035 if
      greenhouse-gas

compared with taking the Suez Canal.

EVEN AS IT BODES catastrophic change elsewhere
on the planet, an ice-free Arctic off ers immense op-
portunities for resource extraction—U.S. congres-
sional research estimates that there is $1 trillion
worth of precious metals and minerals under the
ice, along with the biggest area of untapped petro-
leum deposits left on the planet. Perched on the
edge of the Arctic, Nome could reap that windfall,
becoming the polar region’s Panama City or Port
Said. “Up here, climate change can be an oppor-
tunity if it’s managed right,” says Drew McCann,
director of the Nome Convention and Visitors
Bureau. “We either embrace it, or we are going to

be left behind.” To profi t from the already increas-

ing polar traffi c, the city of Nome proposed a port

expansion in 2013 to make room for deep-draft

cruise liners, Coast Guard vessels, oil tankers, and

shipping liners. Two years later, the Army Corps

of Engineers backed the $618 million project and

promoted Nome as the top candidate for America’s

fi rst deepwater Arctic port. The project received

$250 million in January from the federal infra-

structure package and will likely break ground in

Although un-

checked climate

change on the

whole is devas-

tating for life

on earth, there

will be, inevita-

bly, some win-

ners. Siberia

could become

the world’s next

breadbasket,

Canada the next

communities adapt to a fundamen-

tally and rapidly changing Arctic. On the

one hand, communities in the region face cultural

and environmental catastrophe; on the other, they

are starting to play host to a modern-day gold rush

at the top of the world—one that invites geopoliti-

cal tensions as rival nations compete for resources,

be they fi sh, minerals, or shipping routes.

The Russian government is already position-

ing itself as a net benefi ciary of global warming,

writing in its 2020 Arctic Strategy that “climate

change contributes to the emergence of new eco-

nomic opportunities.” With half the Arctic coast-

line under its control, it’s not hard to see why. Led

by Rosatom, a state-owned nuclear technology and

infrastructure enterprise, the country has invested

approximately $10 billion to develop ports and

RUSSIA

RUSSIA

ALASKA

Anchorage

Bering

Sea

Sea

North

Atlantic

Ocean

Nome

NORTH

POLE

NORWAY

FINLAND

U.K.

GREENLAND

ICELAND

CANADA

S I B

E R

I A

NORTHERN

SEA ROUTE

NORTHWEST

PASSAGE

POLAR

SEA ROUTE

ICE

EXTENT

2021

C

EXTEN

1

ICE

EXTENT

1981

Nome

St. Petersburg

SOURCE: NATIONAL SNOW AND

ICE DATA CENTER, SEPTEMBER

MEASUREMENTS