The Arctic This Week Take Five: Week of 22 September, 2025

Trump Cuts Funding for Arctic Research Consortium Forcing it to Shut Down After 37 Years

Alaska Beacon reported on September 19 that the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States (ARCUS), founded in 1988, will shut down its operations on September 30, following the Trump administration’s decision to end the National Science Foundation program that provided most of its funding. Programs such as the Sea Ice Prediction Network and the Sea Ice for Walrus Outlook will continue under different organizations but most other services will cease. (Alaska Beacon)

Take 1: After nearly four decades of continuous operations facilitating research, education, and community involvement in the American North, the shutdown of ARCUS aligns with the recalibration of US Arctic policy towards extraction, sovereignty, and national security concerns. This is thus not an isolated case: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was forced to cease its monitoring of Arctic sea ice and snow cover in May 2025, discontinuing a wide range of services, including a widely used dataset of sea ice extent dating back to 1850. These developments severely weaken the US’ capacity to generate, manage, and disseminate Arctic science on a global scale while these gaps create space for foreign or non-Arctic states to expand their scientific influence in the region. This diminished US engagement in data collection, system modeling, and international collaboration risks undermining its intellectual leadership in Arctic science. However, the stakes extend beyond academic concerns: Arctic governance, environmental policy, climate forecasting, and community resilience are all rooted in science and require continuous, high-quality data collection. Without stable institutions, US Arctic policymaking is set to become reactive, fragmented, or dictated by foreign actors. Even construction planning and long-term infrastructure viability hinges on sustained data collection, so the US is effectively undermining its own pivot towards increasing extractivism in the High North. (Alaska Beacon, Alaska Beacon, Inside Climate News, Wrangell Sentinel)

Nordic Researchers Launch Project to Examine How Climate and Tourism Pressure Sámi Livelihoods

High North News reported on September 24 on the launch of a new Nordic research project called Adapting Law for Moving Targets: Climate Change, Overtourism and Biodiversity in Indigenous Arctic National Parks (ALAMOT). Through analyzing environmental legal frameworks, the research consortium seeks to assess how climate change and tourism impact Sámi livelihoods and the management of Arctic national parks across Norway, Sweden, and Finland. The goal is to identify best practices and propose measures to strengthen nature conservation and Indigenous rights across the Nordic Arctic. (High North News)

Take 2: As climate change intensifies and Arctic tourism increases, ALAMOT seeks to investigate the legal ‘plumbing’ that underpins the management of Arctic national parks. To do so, the research project will compare park management regimes in Norway, Sweden, and Finland. This comparative angle is significant: Finland and Sweden are bound by EU regulations , and while Norway is tied to much of the EU’s environmental regulations through its membership of the European Economic Area, it is not bound by all directives, notably the nature conservation directives. This legal nuance creates divergences in the management of tourism, predators, and land use in cross-border Sámi areas, and has important implications for reindeer movements and responses to disturbance. ALAMOT aims to translate such evidence into adaptive and compatible proposals. Moreover, building a shared Nordic toolkit on park management could potentially offset frictions with EU-driven measures and when national park mandates intersect with Sámi self-determination. The project’s plan to engage Sámi institutions from the outset is critical for its legitimacy and reflects a wider shift toward co-management and inclusive knowledge-building in nature governance. Looking ahead, ALAMOT’s envisioned legal and policy proposals could become a template for reconciling conservation with Indigenous rights. (Columbia Climate School, High North News, Nordic Council of Ministers, Rangelands Atlas)

Salvage Ships Face Arctic Weather to Free Dutch Cargo Ship Stuck in Canadian Northwest Passage

Eye on the Arctic reported on September 23 that two salvage vessels have arrived to liberate the Dutch-flagged cargo ship Thamesborg, which has been stranded in Canada’s Northwest Passage since September 6. The ice-class vessel, which was shipping carbon blocks from China to Quebec, sustained flooding in several ballast chambers but no fuel tanks or cargo holds were breached, and no pollution has been reported so far. If the weather conditions permit, the salvage plan includes transferring part of the cargo before attempting to refloat the vessel with Canadian Coast Guard support. (Eye on the Arctic)

Take 3: The slow Thamesborg rescue operation points to the risks and practical limits of Arctic shipping. In theory, Arctic shipping can drastically reduce transit times, but the lack of proper shoal mapping, volatile weather conditions, and sparse infrastructure significantly complicate matters, prompting a wider reassessment of the viability of Arctic shipping routes. While longer-term accessibility of such routes is expected to increase by mid-century, less ice does not necessarily entail easier navigation. Although average ice levels decline, mobile ice floes, extreme weather conditions, and icing events form crucial hazards. These dynamics result in higher operating costs and undermine the just-in-time logistics many global shippers depend on. This is further complicated by limited infrastructure, long distances, and scarce heavy salvage gear which undermine efficient search and rescue operations. Moreover, such incidents and their delayed response time can also have severe environmental repercussions. The Arctic is a fragile ecosystem and if cleanup operations can take days or weeks to materialize, the environmental damage of potential leakages or oil spills can be irreversible. These issues will be further exacerbated as Arctic and non-Arctic nations alike turn their attention towards building a commercial and touristic presence in the High North. For instance, Russia is increasingly granting access to the Northern Sea Route to ships without ice-class capability, with several experiencing problems along the way. Given its fragile ecology and unpredictable weather, the development of Arctic routes should be rooted in strict environmental and safety thresholds rather than transit gains. (Eye on the Arctic, Eye on the Arctic, Luminint IntSights)

Avalanche Concerns Trigger Removal of 70 Homes from Svalbard Market

High North News shared on September 24 that the Norwegian authorities are set to remove 70 rental homes in Longyearbyen, Svalbard in December over avalanche risks, accounting to nearly 5% of the city’s housing capacity. The affected residences are located in barracks 3, 4, and 9 in Nybyen and are currently rented by local businesses including Svalbard Wildlife, Hurtigruten Svalbard, and LNS Spitsbergen. (High North News)

Take 4: The decision to remove these rental units emphasizes a growing tension in the High North: balancing safety, development, and socially sustainable living conditions. Locally, the move puts additional strain on an already tight housing market. The Svalbard Business Association and Tourism Council warn of evictions, rising rents, deteriorating living conditions, and staff shortages for critical services – especially in the absence of replacement plans for workers that are about to be displaced. While testing Norway’s capacity to provide alternative housing and ensure the continuity of public and private services, these issues mirror broader infrastructure strains across the High North. In Nunavut, for instance, the Nunavut 3000 housing initiative is behind schedule and already exceeded the budget as remoteness, supply-chain costs, and short construction windows hamper delivery. This also reflects a deeper structural challenge in Arctic settlement planning: infrastructure must not only be able to withstand harsh weather conditions, it must also adapt to emerging climate risks including avalanches, flooding, and slope instability. Retreating from high-risk zones may become the only viable long-term option, but this requires institutions to deliver sustainable housing alternatives and reconfigure energy, transport, and service infrastructure accordingly. This is especially important since infrastructure gaps amplify local fragilities that can be exploited by foreign actors. Ultimately, how Norway manages the Svalbard transition, including support for affected residents and reallocating housing, could set a precedent for other Arctic states facing similar strains. (Forbes, High North News, Nunatsiaq News, Office of the Auditor General of Canada)

Svalbard Ice-Melt Drove 10% of Global Sea-Level Rise in 2024

As reported by The Barents Observer on September 25, a new Norwegian study led by the University of Oslo found that the Svalbard archipelago experienced record-breaking glacier melt in the summer of 2024. Researchers concluded that Svalbard lost about 1% of its total ice in just a few months. This accounted for 10% of the global sea-level rise contribution from all glaciers. (The Barents Observer)

Take 5: Scientists estimate that in 2024 Svalbard lost between 61.7 and 11.1 gigatons of ice in mere months – accounting for approximately the same raw loss as Greenland experienced during the same period, despite Svalbard being 50 times smaller. This drastic ice retreat increases pressures to adapt infrastructure, environmental protection, and community planning faster than ever as retreating glaciers affect infrastructure, extractive operations, and maritime access. Moreover, this ice melt contributed about 0.16mm to global sea-level rise in 2024, which amounts to 10% of the total rise caused by glaciers worldwide. Much of the melting occurred during a six-week heatwave driven by a persistent extreme weather pattern. While rare compared to climate norms of the past, scientists warn that such events can become more frequent in the future. The implications are profound: retreating glaciers weaken permafrost, shift water flows, and destabilize land supporting roads, buildings, and energy systems. At sea, the amplified influx of freshwater alters ocean currents, disrupts marine ecosystems, and accelerates warming in nearby seas by making it easier for warm Atlantic water to move in – a process known as “Atlantification”. No less than 91% of Svalbard’s glaciers have shrunk in recent years and the extreme 2024 melt season shows how even relatively small glacier systems can have far-reaching effects on global sea-level rise. (Nature, Phys.org, PNAS, The Barents Observer)