This paper focuses on the evolution and development of the legal scope of governance and the right to autonomy in the Arctic context by considering contemporary indigenous internationalism through a legal lens and by employing examples from the Arctic indigenous peoples of Greenland and Nunavut. It argues that depending on national policy, partnerships, and relations, there are possibilities for considering direct international representation, and the participation of autonomous sub-national units or indigenous peoples, as a part of the right to autonomy/self-government or internal self-determination. Since indigenous peoples have a limited legal personality and capacity in international law, the states of which they are a part can take special measures to accommodate their needs.

At the start of the heroic age of Antarctic exploration there was great confusion concerning the cause of scurvy. It was known that it was related, in some way, to food but it was uncertain as to how, and there were two main theories. The first was that it was caused by a deficiency of fruit and vegetables and the other that it was caused by a toxic material in tinned foods. In addition, older theories that it was caused by dirt and damp still carried weight and Almroth Wright had proposed that scurvy was caused by too much acid in the blood. An additional confusion was that vitamin C deficiency was often combined with other vitamin deficiencies and so other diseases might be labelled as scurvy. The discovery of vitamins occurred over the same period but, as with all new scientific concepts, the knowledge that scurvy was caused by a vitamin deficiency took time to be universally accepted. It was generally accepted by about 1920, although some people did not accept it until vitamin C has been isolated in 1932.

Northern Canadian natives wish to continue their traditional lifestyle by hunting, fishing and trapping. These feelings have, for example, been expressed at the recent Lancaster Sound Regional Study workshops by the native residents of Grise Fiord, Resolute, Arctic Bay and Pond Inlet, in spite of pressure by government and industry for the Inuit to take up wage-earning employment. In comparison with the cash benefits of industrial employment the value of the native or traditional economy is often underestimated. Domestically-used meat and materials cannot be valued in a formal or cash economy and tend to be discounted in planning analyses (Usher, 1980).

Northern Canada and Alaska from 1945 to 1951 had only a minor military presence and no radar surveillance of airborne threats. Fear of nuclear attack from the USSR led to the installation of numerous radar stations between 1951 and 1958. Alaska gained an inner and an outer arc of radar stations, and Canada the Pinetree Line, Mid-Canada Line, Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line and the little-known Pine-Gap radars of the east coast, from Newfoundland to Baffin Island. The Mid-Canada line closed in 1965 and the Pine-Gap stations were dismantled nine years later. The Pinetree and DEW lines ceased operation in 1988. Alaskan radar facilities were upgraded in the mid- 1980s, and in 1987 and 1988 similar radars were installed at the 14 stations of the North Warning Line, built along the abandoned DEW and Pine-Gap lines from northwestern Alaska to southern Labrador. Very long-range over-the-horizon radars at three locations will be completed by the early 1990s to monitor aircraft in the vicinity of Alaska and the east and west coasts of Canada. The ballistic missile early warning radars installed in the early 1960s in Alaska and Greenland received major improvements in the late 1980s.

Since the early part of the 20th century, the federal government has engaged in a long and slow process of devolution in the Canadian Arctic. Although the range of powers devolved to the territorial governments has been substantial over the years, the federal government still maintains control over the single most important jurisdiction in the region, territorial lands and resources, which it controls in two of the three territories, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. This fact is significant for territorial governments because gaining jurisdiction over their lands and resources is seen as necessary for dramatically improving the lives of residents and governments in the Canadian north. Relying on archival materials, secondary sources, and 33 elite interviews, this paper uses a rational choice framework to explain why the Yukon territorial government was able to complete a final devolution agreement relating to lands and resources in 2001 and why the governments of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut have not. It finds that the nature and distance of federal-territorial preferences, combined with government perceptions of aboriginal consent and federal perceptions of territorial capacity and maturity, explain the divergent outcomes experienced by the three territorial governments in the Canadian arctic.

The following acronyms are employed: AIP: Agreement-in-Principle; DTA: Devolution Transfer Agreement; GEB: gross expenditure base; GN: Government of Nunavut; GNWT: Government of Northwest Territories; NCLA: Nunavut Land Claims Agreement; NTI: Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated; NWT; Northwest Territories; ON: Ontario; TFF: Territorial Formula Financing; UFA: Umbrella Final Agreement; YDTA: Yukon Devolution Transfer Agreement; YTG: Yukon Territorial Government; YK: Yukon;

During the past few years, interest in the physicochemical properties of ice has expanded considerably (Gorham, 1958; Sugawara, 1961; Coachman, Hemmingsen & Scholander, 1956; Langway, 1962). Little, however, is known of the chemical composition of precipitation in the polar regions or of the chemical composition of different types of ice. Consequently, it is thought that the following information, compiled as a part of a much larger chemical study of several Antarctic lakes, might be of some interest to students of chemical meteorology and to those workers investigating the physical properties of ice.

This brief report describes the first year of a joint Cambridge University—Iceland University two-year project to develop radio echo depth-sounding apparatus suitable for the temperate ice of the Vatnajökull ice cap. There is much interest in obtaining detailed ice thickness measurements for the 8 400 km2 Vatnajökull area, where only limited ice-depth surveys, using bore-hole and seismxic techniques, have been carried out in the past. A line of volcanic and geothermal activity extends through the western regions of the ice and creates a sub-glacial lake, Grimsvotn, which collapses every five years or so giving rise to the jökulhlaups, a catastrophic flooding which affects considerable areas of the Icelandic coast to the south of Vatnajökull. Proper understanding of the jökulhlaups phenomena can only be achieved if detailed knowledge of ice thickness and related data are available. Established radio echo sounding techniques which have been successfully applied in the polar regions do not work in water-laden ice such as is to be found in the Vatnajökull area.

From 14 November to 12 December 1986 a five-man team surveyed Ile des Pingouins, an islandin the lies Crozet archipelago only once previously visited by scientists. Supported by Terres Australes et Antarctiques Francaises (TAAF), the team investigated the geology, climate, botany, invertebrate zoology and ornithology of the island.

The United Nations (UN) has now been involved with the ‘Question of Antarctica’ for 20 years. Divisions within the international community about the most appropriate form of management for Antarctica, which was presented to the UN as a region of global importance, have never completely disappeared, even if the restoration of a consensus approach during the mid-1990s was based upon a broader appreciation of the merits of the Antarctic Treaty System. Both Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties and non-Consultative Parties, pointing to the regime's enduring intrinsic qualities, have adopted an unyielding attitude towards Treaty outsiders advocating a more democratic, accountable, and transparent regime. Even so, the critical lobby, led by Dr Mahathir's Malaysian government, has never gone away. Initially, the ‘Question of Antarctica’ was discussed at the UN on an annual basis, but since 1996 it has been placed on a triennial reference. Following the most recent session in late 2002, the topic is scheduled to be placed on the UN's agenda again in 2005. This article reviews critically the key themes characterising the UN's involvement in the ‘Question of Antarctica’ since 1983, while using successive Polar Record articles on individual UN sessions to provide a framework of reference and an informed basis for further research on the topic.

US policy toward the Antarctic between 1939 and 1949 reflected the inability of the Department of State and other government personnel to agree on the region's relevance to national security. Washington's intent to gain worldwide prestige by promoting a harmonious settlement of the dispute over sovereignty claims complicated the international situation to an extent that necessitated a shift to the status quo moratorium proposed by Chile. The United States finally attempted to rally support for this alternative that, in turn, complicated how to exclude the USSR. Although the risk of Soviet encroachment seriously concerned US officials, it posed less immediate dangers than letting conflict escalate between Britain, Chile, and Argentina.

Using a literature review, this paper defines the knowledge status of smoked reindeer meat and investigates to what degree reindeer herders’ traditional knowledge has been included in scientific articles and grey literature. We developed a four-level categorisation of the degree of including traditional knowledge, from “non-participation” to “self-determination,” and three levels of focus. Very few scientific articles on smoked or smoking reindeer meat appeared in the review. Not only did reindeer peoples’ traditional meat smoking knowledge “went up in smoke”—both literally and metaphorically—but also incorrect conclusions were often drawn as a result of that exclusion. We argue that reindeer herders’ traditional knowledges and practices of smoking reindeer meat need examination and inclusion through co-production or self-determination methods across scientific disciplines.

Reindeer and caribou are terrestrial herbivores, that feed on lichens and are used for commercial and subsistence food products. Caribou are a key component of the arctic food web and the bioaccumulation of toxic contaminants, such as mercury (Hg), needs to be monitored to establish a baseline as the arctic environment is impacted by both climate change and future industrial development. A changing climate in Alaska is influencing plant species composition, fire regime, melting and flooding events, and thus, impacting Hg bioavailability in the food chain. Industrial development in Asia is also projected to increase the atmospheric global pool of Hg from increased coal combustion. Reindeer, a domesticated representative of caribou, can be used as a terrestrial biomonitor for metal exposure. In this study total mercury concentrations were measured in lichens and in hair of grazing reindeer on defined ranges across Alaska to establish a baseline for future hypothesis development and testing regarding Hg deposition. The Hg mean level for Seward Peninsula lichens on the Davis Range was 37.4 ng g−1, on the Gray Range 47.1 ng g−1, on the Kakaruk Range 42.2 ng g−1, and 41.7 ng g−1 on the Noyakuk Range. Lichen Hg levels on St. Lawrence Island was 46.6 ng g−1. Methyl mercury levels in lichens were found to be below detection levels. Reindeer grazing on these ranges had mean Hg hair levels of 14.6 ng g−1 (Davis herd), 83.4 ng g−1 (Gray herd), and 40.3 ng g−1 (Noyakuk herd). Two reindeer on St. Lawrence Island had an average of Hg of 43.0 ng g−1. Sample sizes ranged from n = 2 to n = 11. Hg mean levels in lichen on Seward Peninsula were higher than Hg means of two ranges in northern Mongolia. The Hg levels observed in this study indicate that Hg levels in Alaska are low at this time and pose no risk to the health of reindeer or human subsistence harvesters. A significant relationship between Hg in lichens on the ranges and the Hg in reindeer on those ranges has not been established. There are insufficient data on Hg levels in many areas of the north and more information is needed on location specific and time trends in Hg concentrations. Lichens and reindeer hair provide a good, non-invasive method of monitoring metal exposure changes in Alaskan ecosystems.

The objective of this research was to determine the number of people using the Ross Island recreational walking tracks, and to examine the relationships between the number of users, track morphological characteristics, and soil physiochemical properties. Infrared track counters provided 2-years of data on five walking tracks on the island. Track width and track incision were measured and soil sampling in the vicinity of the track counter and an adjacent control site was undertaken. Between January 2009 and January 2011 5084 passes were recorded on the Scott Base to McMurdo Station walking track, 2842 on the Wind Vane Hill walking track, 3561 on the Round Observation Hill walking track, 10936 on the Up Observation Hill track, and 693 on the Crater Hill summit walking track. There were more users on all tracks in the 2010–2011 summer season than the 2009–2010 summer season. The highest frequency of visitors occurred on Sundays during the summer (November to January). There was no relationship between the number of passes on the track and the measured impact indicators. This indicates that higher usage of a formed track had little cumulative impact. Track width and incision were related to the slope of the terrain, with tracks traversing flatter areas generally wider (R2 = 0.85) and less incised (R2 = 0.96), than those traversing steeper hillsides. There were no significant differences between tracks and control samples in soil pH, soil EC, organic C, total N, and total P. However, soil bulk density was higher in the walking tracks than adjacent control areas (p < 0.05).

Two of the outstanding problems in Antarctic earth sciences are the early history of the East Antarctic ice sheet, and the history of the Transantarctic Mountains. These two problems may well be linked, for if the initial uplift of the Transantarctic Mountains was sufficient to promote a permanent ice cap, this may have triggered formation of the East Antarctic ice sheet in the manner oudined by Drewry (1975, p 266). Glomar Challenger in 1973 made the first major breakthrough concerning early history of the ice sheet by recovering cores from the centre of the Ross Sea; they show that ice rafting began there 25 Ma BP and has been going on ever since (Hayes and others, 1975). However, the core data give little indication of the extent of ice cover, or of the climatic changes that led to expanded ice cover which produced the ice-rafted debris.

For some time, Inuit have made it clear that they wish to play a more substantial role in research with implications for themselves and their territory. To understand how researchers communicate and relate to each other, cultural analysis is often employed. Although cultural differences are relevant to understanding problems in the conduct of research, limiting differences to these realities is overly deterministic and essentialist. Many differences arising in the research process are products of social constructions found in Canadian culture and, increasingly, in Inuit communities. The paper re-examines the complexities of cross-class relations, focusing on how different relations to money, as a proxy for other relations characteristic of the capitalist mode of production, consumption and commodification, impact Inuit interaction with western-educated researchers. Using the Nanisiniq Arviat History Project in the community of Arviat, Nunavut Territory Canada, as a case study, the paper is a qualitative analysis of miscommunication resulting from cross-class differences. The Nanisiniq project was a two-year participatory action research project bringing Inuit youth and elders together to rediscover, interpret and apply knowledge of their history and culture to contemporary social issues affecting them.

Icy environments (glacial ice and sea ice) can be complex ecosystems, supporting a diversity of communities. In particular, the μ-environments in which bacteria and algae are found are poorly understood. One important habitat is the liquid trapped in the ice, either as veins and triple junctions inherent in the ice structure or as liquid inclusions. μ-Raman spectroscopy is an analytical tool with the potential to characterise qualitatively and quantitatively these liquid μ-environments especially with respect to molecular anions such as nitrate, sulphate, bisulphate and MSA. Using a model system for glacial ice, splat-cooled samples were prepared from aqueous solutions of these anions at varying concentrations (50–75 mM total sulphate, 30–200 mM nitrate, and 10–55 mM MSA). Concentrations of these anions in the vein liquid were measured directly and non-destructively at –15 °C using μ-Raman spectroscopy. In agreement with predicted concentrations in glacial ice veins, it was found that typical ionic concentrations in veins are quite high, with mean concentrations ranging from 0.23 M to 3.5 M depending on anion type and initial concentration. For sulphate solutions, it was also possible to measure vein pH's directly. The observed pH in these systems was extremely low, in some cases ~1. The results of these model studies as well as the implications for ice vein concentrations in natural systems of polycrystalline ice are discussed.