The Environment and Industry of the Artic Region :: Geography

The Env weightliftment and Industry of the Artic RegionIntroduction.The Artic is a region at the upper most tip of the Northern Hemisphere. TheArtic includes the area around Greenland, USSR, Canada and Alaska. Much ofthe Artic move is permanently frozen ice.The Artic is a pristine environment, clean and void of human interference. and as humans move into these areas and begin to extract what ever they trick be balance can be tipped, resulting in pollution and destruction of theenvironment.Climate.The Artic winters much longer than the Summer. In the winter the sun neverrises and in the pass it never sets. The average temperature for theArtic is zero degrees or less.Industry and the Artic.There was once a time when the land of the Artic Circle was considereduseless and only hospitable to those indigene to it. However once vastquantities of oil and tip had been found in that location was a rush of interest inthe land.Fishing in the Artic has occurred for thousands of years only i f in recentyears man has been fishing the Artic in great(p)er numbers and taking morefish. Professional fishermen are taking all kinds of fish as well as whalesand seals. In some areas fishermen have become so efficient at their jobthat quotas have needed to be hurl on to limit or stop the capture ofcertain animals.There are many mineral deposits within the Artic Circle. In Russia nickel,iron ore, apatite, diamonds, gold, tin, coal, mica, and tungsten. InSweden iron ore. In Greenland lead, zinc, molybdenum and cryolite. Spitsbergen coal. Canada uranium, copper, nickel, lead, zinc, tungstenand iron ore. The digging out of minerals would inevitably disturb thenatural habitat as well as the environment there would be a great cost tomaintain the site. Industry that is designed to process various mineralshave waste products that would be most unwelcome in the Artic. A goodexample of this is the pollution that has arisen as a result of thesmelting of metals in the Artic. It is for t his reason that there is verylittle industry in the Artic. However Russia, Canada, Greenland and Icelandhave several small scale manufacturing plants.The largest industry in the Artic is oil. The rush began in 1968 when alarge oil field was discovered, there was a great deal of protest but thedevelopment went ahead.Oil extracted from the felid makes its way to Port Valdez via a 1300kilometre pipeline. Although steps were taken to limit the pipelines affecton the environment it still disrupts the migration of caribou.