The Arctic is a vital region that helps preserve the balance of the global climate. The Arctic environment is particularly sensitive to short-lived climate pollutants, including black carbon, due to their strong warming effect. With ambitious policy action to reduce air pollutants, Arctic Council countries would obtain a positive effect on health and the environment throughout their territory, while also helping to slow down climate change by reducing emissions of black carbon. This report calls for ambitious policy action to reduce air pollution in Arctic Council countries, highlighting the environmental, health, and economic benefits from policy action.
Outdoor air pollution kills more than 3 million people across the world every year, and causes health problems from asthma to heart disease for many more. This is costing societies very large amounts in terms of the value of lives lost and ill health. Based on extensive new epidemiological evidence since the 2010 Global Burden of Disease study, and OECD estimates of the Value of Statistical Life, this report provides evidence on the health impacts from air pollution and the related economic costs.
The Arctic is a vital region that helps preserve the balance of the global climate. The Arctic environment is particularly sensitive to short-lived climate pollutants, including black carbon, due to their strong warming effect.
For many years, concerns have been expressed about environmental issues in the Arctic. While the Arctic region, unlike Antarctica, has been inhabited for thousands of years, it is under unique threat because of its vulnerability toward resource exploitation and the deposition of various airborne pollutants. With its varied populations, and with eight Nations asserting territorial interests, the Arctic needs a careful approach to its protection and development. This report describes the current Arctic environmental legal regime. It also discusses the possibility of negotiating a sustainability treaty for the Arctic with high standards of environmental protection similar to those in the 1991 Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty. It is hoped that this review of the legal and policy contrasts between the Arctic and Antarctic can help in the consideration of future directions for the Arctic legal regime.
"The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic marks the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come." -Global Trends 2040 (2021) Global Trends 2040-A More Contested World (2021), released by the US National Intelligence Council, is the latest report in its series of reports starting in 1997 about megatrends and the world's future. This report, strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, paints a bleak picture of the future and describes a contested, fragmented and turbulent world. It specifically discusses the four main trends that will shape tomorrow's world: - Demographics-by 2040, 1.4 billion people will be added mostly in Africa and South Asia. - Economics-increased government debt and concentrated economic power will escalate problems for the poor and middleclass. - Climate-a hotter world will increase water, food, and health insecurity. - Technology-the emergence of new technologies could both solve and cause problems for human life. Students of trends, policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades, will find this report, with colored graphs, essential reading.
Recent advances in air pollution monitoring and modeling capabilities have made it possible to show that air pollution can be transported long distances and that adverse impacts of emitted pollutants cannot be confined to one country or even one continent. Pollutants from traffic, cooking stoves, and factories emitted half a world away can make the air we inhale today more hazardous for our health. The relative importance of this "imported" pollution is likely to increase, as emissions in developing countries grow, and air quality standards in industrial countries are tightened. Global Sources of Local Pollution examines the impact of the long-range transport of four key air pollutants (ozone, particulate matter, mercury, and persistent organic pollutants) on air quality and pollutant deposition in the United States. It also explores the environmental impacts of U.S. emissions on other parts of the world. The book recommends that the United States work with the international community to develop an integrated system for determining pollution sources and impacts and to design effective response strategies. This book will be useful to international, federal, state, and local policy makers responsible for understanding and managing air pollution and its impacts on human health and well-being.
The climate and other characteristics of the polar regions have been major factors in shaping the legal regime applicable to the polar oceans. In Antarctica, states have had to grapple with the question of how to account for developments in the Law of the Sea, while preserving the compromise over sovereignty contained in the Antarctic Treaty. The Arctic also has presented challenges for the Law of the Sea, as illustrated by the continued attention given to special rules for polar shipping. The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea has led to substantial agreement on the legal regime of ocean spaces. The present volume explores the impact the Convention has had on the polar regions in this respect, including after its entry into force in 1994. To this end, it looks at a number of issue areas in the field of maritime delimitation (baselines, maritime zones, delimitation of maritime zones betweenm neighboring states) and jursidiction (environmental protection, navigation and fisheries) from a bipolar perspective. It is strongly suggested that the legal regime of the polar oceans will be further elaborated to more effectively deal with existing activities or to accommodate new activities. It is likely that the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea will continue to provide the basic legal framework for this exercise and that states will be careful not to unravel the delicate balance contained in it.
The Arctic has become a global arena. This development can only be comprehensively understood from a transdisciplinary perspective encompassing ecological, cultural, societal, economic, industrial, geopolitical, and security considerations. This book offers thorough explanations of Arctic developments and challenges. Global warming is in large part the driving force behind the transformation of the Arctic by making access possible to the areas previously out of reach for mining and shipping. An all-year ice-free Arctic Ocean, a reality possible as soon as perhaps 2030, creates a new dynamic in the North. The retreating ice edge enables the exploitation of previously inaccessible resources such as hydrocarbon deposits and rare metals, as well as the shortest sea route from Asia to Europe. Consequently, the Northern Sea Route (NSR) promises faster and cheaper shipping. Russia, along side foreign investment, especially from China, is financing the needed infrastructure. A warming Arctic, however, also has negative impacts. The Arctic is home to fragile ecosystems that are already showing signs of deteriorating. The Arctic has seen unprecedented wildfires, which, together with the release of trapped methane from the disappearing permafrost, will, in turn, accelerate global warming. A warmer Arctic Ocean will also negatively impact fisheries. Couple this with other global changes, such as ocean acidification and modified ocean currents, and the global outlook is bleak. Additionally, the security situation in the Arctic is worsening. After the 2014 Ukraine crisis, the West imposed sanctions on the Russian Federation, which have revived the divisions of the Cold War. The reemergence of these postures is threatening the highly successful Barents Cooperation and other initiatives for peace in the circumpolar North. This book offers new insights and presents arguments for how to mitigate the challenges the Arctic is facing today.
