Climate Change, Regionalism, and Universalism: Elegy for the Arctic and the Antarctic?

Abstract

The Arctic lays north of the Arctic Circle, at a minimum latitude of 66.33°, that is, the most northerly of the major circles of the Earth’s latitude. The Arctic Circle is essentially an ocean surrounded by land; it includes portions of the territories of the United States, Canada, Denmark (notably Greenland), Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia, as well as parts of Iceland’s continental shelf. Part of the Arctic territory is subject to temperatures that are permanently lower than the freezing point of water and thus constitutes the “permafrost.” To a large extent, ice covers the Arctic Ocean, halving in summer and expanding in fall and winter. Only 28 percent of the ice pack is multiannual, with a thickness that is up to 3-4 meters and ridges up to 20 meters.