Volume 44, April 2014, Pages 15–30
Industrial extraction of Arctic natural resources since the sixteenth century: technoscience and geo-economics in the history of northern whaling and mining
Highlights
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- Demonstrates where and when whaling got ecologically unsustainable in the Arctic.
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- Argues that the socioeconomic challenges of Arctic mining equal those of the climate.
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- Compares Soviet and ‘free enterprise’ Arctic industry.
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- Demonstrates geopolitical functions in the architecture of Arctic mining camps.
Abstract
A
comparative perspective is applied in analyzing the large-scale
utilization of Arctic natural resources driven by economies and agents
outside the Arctic and subarctic regions. This paper focuses on whaling
since the sixteenth century, and on the development of mining from the
nineteenth century to the present. The European sector of the Arctic and
subarctic regions including the high-Arctic archipelago of Spitsbergen
provides the main cases for this study. The social, economic and
environmental contexts and consequences of northern industry are
considered; as part of this line of research, the little-known symbolic
and geopolitical uses of industrial field installations are considered.
The
northern transfer of Western technoscience, including scientific
navigation, colonial geography, steam-propulsion and aviation, often
failed initially despite much enthusiasm and underwent painstaking
on-site modification. In this industrialists and other Arctic
entrepreneurs attempted to control a complex combination of factors
including the sparse local population, the lack of major infrastructure,
and the environmental impact of their own businesses. This combined
with the social problems of keeping peace among collaborators and
competitors under isolated and lawless conditions. In conclusion, the
greatest challenges to industry in the Arctic throughout modern history
were local and social rather than climatic or geopolitical.
Indigenous
interests were long disregarded while Arctic seas and some land areas
were exploited by Western nations as unregulated commons. Not only
nature and local inhabitants but also the industry itself suffered from
increased scales of operations. The record of Arctic extractive
industries over four hundred years reveals a need to develop and share
relevant environmental and socio-economic knowledge and to develop
international regulations and instruments such as industry certification
to guarantee sustainable northern resource utilization.
Keywords
- Arctic;
- Science;
- History;
- Industry;
- Whaling;
- Mining;
- Sustainability;
- Territorial claims;
- Architectural symbolism;
- Management of commons
Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
