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SESSION No. 4 THEME: THE EXPANDING UTILIZATION OF THE ARCTIC WALTER WOOD, presiding Chairman Wood: Ladies and gentlemen, before we begin the technical portion of the meeting, I want to tell you how happy I am to be here and only regret that a conflict of geographical interests prevented me from attending the entire conference. I am delighted to be here for two reasons; first because of my own former association with the Quartermaster, and second because I see at this meeting the happy marriage of the Military Command and the work of The Arctic Institute of North America. Our first speaker this afternoon is a man who has led field expedi- tions into the far northern reaches of the Canadian barren land and is an industrialist who knows what he is talking about when he is talking about resources. He is Vice President of the International Nickel Company and is also a member of the Board of Governors of The Arctic Institute of North America. Mr. Paul Queneau. UTILIZATION OF THE ARCTIC'S NATURAL RESOURCES PAUL QUENEAU International Nickel Company of Canada, Ltd. New York, New York This study confines itself to an examination of the 2,000,000 square miles of the northern hemisphere which the geographer defines as the terrestrial Arctic, a region in which the mean temperature of the warmest month is below 50 °Fâin effect the area lying north of the tree line. The first necessity in any crystalline discussion of a specific geographic area is circumscription of its boundaries; otherwise the subject becomes elastic and the conclusions amorphous. A clear pic- ture of the specific area under discussion is vital to an understanding of the obstacles which must be overcome in the utilization of the Arctic's natural resources. The engineering and human problems there are of a different order of magnitude than is generally true of the sub-Arctic. Whether in Dawson Creek or Matanuska, in Moi Rana or Skelleftehamn such problems are of the same general order as in Hibbing or Noranda. The same is not true in Kong Oscar's Fjord or Lancaster Sound. The sparse life of the Arctic is dominated by the long, cold winters; the summers are too short and cool to permit plant growth in the barren soil other than a scant cover of grasses, lichens, mosses and a few stunted shrubs. The human, fur-bearing, and other native animal population of the land is of low density. Significant economic activity based on agriculture or silviculture is impossible. Insofar as marine 119
fauna are concerned, commercial fishing is unattractive in the poorly productive waters of the Arctic zone except where they mix with warmer waters from the south, as off the Lofotens, Iceland and southern Greenland. Thus for many years in this remote section of the globe it is not on land or sea that man will reap any rich harvest. It is the Arctic's great non-renewable resources in the bowels of its frozen earth which will be increasingly utilized during the coming decades. This paper is thus inevitably devoted to the mineral industry and the various factors which affect mining, milling, smelting and refining operations in the far north. In order to get a better understanding of the future, we shall briefly review the present status of mineral resource development in the Arctic. Enumeration of the existing mining operations in the North American Arctic requires little effort. In the United States there is sporadic placer gold mining in the river system which flows into Kotzebue Sound from the western Brooks Range, and coal is mined occasionally on Cape Lisburne and on the Meade River. An accumulation of oil north of the Brooks Range in the 37,000 square mile Naval Petroleum Reserve will some day be brought into pro- duction. An exploration program conducted at a cost of $50,000,000 located several promising structures, the richest of which is believed to be the Umiat field 180 miles southeast of Point Barrow with an estimated 70,000,000 barrels of recoverable reserves. A modest nickel- copper deposit is being exploited at Rankin Inlet, north of Churchill on Hudson Bay, and it constitutes the only mineral production in the Canadian Arctic. Important quantities of petroleum may be present in the sediments of the Queen Elizabeths, for instance, Bathurst Island; and substantial tonnages of iron minerals are known to occur in several areas including Baffin Island. In Greenland there is a small cryolite mining operation on the southwest coast at Ivigtut and a small lead-zinc mining operation at Mestersvig on the east coast. For reason which will be elaborated below, the mineral industry is notably more active in the Arctic of the eastern hemisphere. On the Barents Sea at Kirkenes, where the Norwegian coast is still in- fluenced by the Gulf Stream, there is a major iron mining enterprise which has one thousand employees and exports a million tons of high grade concentrates yearly. Svalbard produces a considerable amount of coal by a Norwegian effort involving one thousand persons. Presumably the Soviets are also obtaining coal there from con- cessions which shelter a Russian population of perhaps 2,500. The Norwegian mining operations are at Longyear City and New Aalesund, and the Soviet's are at Barentsburg, Grumant City, and Pyramiden. The mining establishments were destroyed during World War II but have since been reconstructed, and post-war Norwegian coal production has been running at about half a million tons per year. Also on the Barents Sea, near the ice-free port of Petsamo in a region ceded to the Soviets by Finland, there are important nickel- 120
copper mining and smelting operations with a nickel output amount- ing to possibly 30,000,000 pounds yearly. Moving eastward toward the Urals, the Pechora Basin is a major producer of high quality coal and of oil and gas, present coal output apparently approaching 20,000,000 tons yearly. The chief mining center is Vorkuta with a population of at least 50,000. The Salekhard region, just east of the Urals, is reportedly a producer of natural gas. Farther eastward near the mouth of the Yenisey is Norilsk, believed to be the main Russian nickel producer with an output of perhaps 50,000,000 pounds yearly, and major concomitant copper, cobalt, and platinum metals output. Over one million tons yearly of coal and, reportedly, oil is produced in the vicinity of this city which has about 100,000 in- habitants and is by all odds the leading Arctic mining center in the world. There are a number of fuel sources of local significance east- ward along the coast such as coal at Nordvik, near the delta of the Lena and at the mouth of the Indigirka. Tin and gold are mined in scattered localities in the coastal mountains of the Chukotskiy Range. A great assistance to the development of the Arctic in the eastern hemisphere is the Gulf Stream and the presence of large rivers which flow northward into the Arctic Ocean, including the Pechora, Ob, Yenisey, Lena, and Kolyma, the middle three of which are among the longest in the world. These rivers constitute extremely valuable transportation links between the coast and Russian population and supply centers since the Trans-Siberian Railroad crosses the upper reaches of the Ob and Yenisey and is close to the head waters of the Lena. The only comparable north-flowing river in the West is the Mackenzie. Another advantage in the East is that ice interference to summer shipping along the Arctic coast is much less than in the straits of the Canadian Archipelago. Consideration of the above mining operations immediately im- presses one with a feature which they possess in common and without exception, that is, location on tidewater or navigable river or short railway connection thereto. This location is no accident and brings us to the main obstacle which must be overcome by industry in the Arctic, namely, the high cost of logistics. The movement of material and personnel to and from the isolated Arctic mining operation constitutes an increment to the expense of production which places it at a distinct disadvantage in competition with mineral exploitation in more readily accessible regions to the south. This expense is the great and all-pervasive deterrent to development of mineral resources in the far north. It multiplies the cost of initial exploration, of plant and townsite construction and operation, of utilities and in- ventory maintenance, of labor, and, inevitably, of the delivered product. The classic method of heavy transport by water in ship or barge is much the cheapest when possible, followed at present by rail, road, cross-country tractor train, and fixed-wing aircraft. Some concept 121
of the financial burden involved is indicated by the rate of $200.00 per ton for coastal DEW Line station supply from Montreal. Bulk freight may move at five cents or less per ton mile by rail as com- pared to about ten cents per ton mile by road. General cargo may move cross-country by tractor train or fixed-wing aircraft at forty cents to a dollar per ton mile, cost and choice of such transport being largely controlled by location and nature of the terrain and type of aircraft employable. The adverse effect of logistics on economy is magnified since heavy, rather than light, industry is involved. The cost of mine product shipment alone can easily exceed its market value. Another difficulty militating against Arctic operations is one which might be termed the "heat balance" in its broad sense. Energy for machine propulsion or endothermic process reaction is, with few exceptions, costly since it usually must be generated locally on a small scale with expensive fossil fuel. In addition, the severe climate necessitates large expenditures for direct heating purposes. The adverse heat balance can amount to a competitive penalty of several dollars per ton mined. Hydro-electric power potential is limited be- cause its transmission is expensive and uneven water flow, ice, and permafrost are complicating factors. The wind is an inexhaustible supply of energy which requires no transportation, but its force fluctuates widely and accumulation of large capacity is uneconomic. Solar energy, although of great magnitude, is extremely variable in delivery, and its density per unit area is low, so that large capacity requires undue investment in collecting surface. Omnipresent permafrost, the zone in the ground perennially below freezing point, is troublesome in the construction of buildings, utilities, and waste disposal. Costly measures are frequently necessary to avoid disturbing the thermal regime with resulting settlement caused by melting of ice in volume exceeding the void content of the thawed, consolidated soil. Large quantities of gravel, often hard to obtain, are essential for surfacing and foundations. Permafrost does not interfere seriously with underground mining and is basically an aid to road construction. However, its new feet of active top layer and the poor drainage can create virtually impassable conditions for vehicles during the summer months. Last but not least of the innate impediments of the environment is the problem of manpower. The widely scattered circumpolar aboriginal population, including Eskimos, Lapps, Samoyeds, and Chukchis, totals only 100,000. Thus any major mining enterprise requires importation of labor unaccustomed to the rigorous living conditions and reluctant to settle in the area. It is not only the wind- chill and the lack of urban amenities which the immigrant finds repellent. The long periods in which the sun doesn't rise or is hidden by fog or low overcast and the paucity of fauna and flora exert a depressing effect leading to discontent. This is a problem which does 122
not lend itself to any ready solution. Compulsion can be employed as in the Soviet Empire, e.g., the penal colonies for useful liquidation of political prisoners which played so prominent a role in the establish- ment of Vorkuta and Norilsk or the forced transplanting of national groups to Siberia. However, even a political system based on mili- tary social discipline and profligate consumption of "human material" has proven inadequate to the task. Currently special financial rewards and vacation privileges are offered to induce voluntary migration of labor to the far north, as practiced in the West. When all required expenditures are totaled, mine capital invest- ment and operating costs in the Arctic can prove double or more than those in less remote and harsh climes. The reader may now have concluded that the growth prospects of a rational mining industry there in the foreseeable future are cold indeed. This conclusion is not necessarily the case because world population pressure and the meteoric progress of science and engineering can provide capa- bilities which not long ago would have been considered chimeras. This discussion avoids flights of fancy such as the recent publicized scheme for damming the Bering Strait which would more likely end in disaster than triumph. It also omits carefully considered but com- plex projects on the order of the proposed port-creating nuclear blasts on the northwest coast of Alaska. However, tremendous ad- vances have been made which are transforming the present bleak situation in respect to logistics, heat balance, and living conditions in the Arctic. How soon the new potential will become dynamic on a large scale depends in good measure on the wind of change blowing in lands closer to the Equator. The supranational, immutable law of relative energy input per unit of output which made the Czar of old build the epic Trans-Siberian Railroad in the south has made the Czar of today concentrate heavy industry in the same imperial marches. Since the Russians possess more natural resources than any other nation on earth, and the bulk of these are south of the tree line, there is today limited economic incentive for strong industrial de- velopment in Arctic Siberia. If the Atlantic Community has adequate access to minerals from areas to the south on the basis of fair and mutually profitable exchange, then intensive Arctic mineral develop- ment will be relegated to another generation. The engineer knows that, if political circumstances permit, the enormous reserves of mineral wealth lying between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn can economically dominate those lying north of the Arctic Circle. It must nevertheless be understood that man's ability to take reward- ing industrial action in the far north will in ten years be very different than it is today. The cost of transport by air freighter is inverse to the lift capacity and efficiency of the vehicle, and here the jet engine is one of the Arctic's best friends. A projected Lockheed turbofan jet cargo plane will move 40 tons of payload 2500 miles at 500 knots for less than 123
20 cents per ton mile in Arctic service. VSTOL aircraft (vertical short take-off and landing) will permit aerial truck and bus drivers to take off and land vertically yet travel horizontally with fixed-wing aircraft speed and range, allowing large savings in ground facilities. There is also promise in the hovercraft, a ground effect vehicle which rides a cushion of air separating the craft from land or water a few feet below (or roughly 1/10 of vehicle diameter). It may in due course play a role in freeing light transport from direct contact with the earth where, as in the Arctic, long distances may be traveled over reasonably flat topography. Much improved bulk cargo cross-country locomotion, such as by huge amphibious track-laying vehicles de- signed for tundra and rock desert use, is already within our grasp. The blue water monopoly exercised by the ice canopy in the High Arctic has now been broken by the submarine, so that traditional heavy transport by water will in time sharply extend its domain. The advent of nuclear energy has metamorphosed the heat balance problem in the Arctic beyond recognition. Within a decade it will be possible for a major Arctic operation to generate steam and electric power at costs similar to those common in many industrial nations of the temperate zone. Removal of the heat balance handicap can in turn lead, in the case of a number of elements at least, to elimination of the high cost of moving large tonnages of relatively low-grade mine product to market. For instance, raw ore or concentrate could be subjected locally to a choice of pyrometallurgical, hydrometallurgical, or vapometallurgical techniques and thereby allow export of practica- ble tonnages of high-grade metal. Insofar as questions of permafrost and personnel are concerned, it is now possible to conduct operations underground and, in the Arctic at least, at lower cost and with greater ease than on the surface. Air-conditioning, television, sun-lamps, hydroponics allow man to build vast, modern subsurface igloos in rock almost independent of the world above. The wind and snow, chilling, sporadically demonic, building concrete-like drifts and sifting through nook and cranny, can be ignored. Selection of employees, good food and private living accommodations, generous public recreation facilities and adequate vacations will minimize the manpower problem. It is interesting to note that it is the sword which is cutting down the barriers to peaceful pursuits all around the polar Mediterranean. Following in the paths of the Anglo-American military explorers of yesteryear who journeyed into the white solitudes until the Pole was attained, North American defense forces are creating new and favorable circumstances for man living in the Arctic. The list of these military contributions is long and impressive: the long-range jet plane and heavy duty helicopter, the submarine, the icebreaker, special track-laying vehicles, Alaska Railroad, Alcan and other high- ways, the DEW Line and White Alice, Thule, communications net- works, meteorological stations, navigation aids, airfields, harbors, POL, water and sanitation facilities, nuclear power plants, perma- 124
frost management and use of snow and ice as materials of construc- tion, medical advances, and improvements in cold weather clothing. Most of the far northern U.S.S.R. is forbidden to foreigners, but there is no doubt as to the outstanding record of achievement there. In war and peace the Russians, from the Cossack conquerors of Siberia to Ivan Papanin and his coworkers, have long and successfully struggled with their cold weather environment. The remarkable efforts expended along the Northern Sea Route have always had a military purpose, quite aside from provision of reliable deepwater transport for economic development. The history of Rozhdestvenski's encounter with Togo might have been different if his route had been less than half as long: via the Taymyr Peninsula rather than the Cape of Good Hope. Ironically, the first warship to complete the Northeast Passage in one navigating season was the German raider "Komet" during the Hitler-Stalin Alliance. The ice-free port of Murmansk and the Pechora coalfields were linked to the interior by railroads built in World War I and World War II, respectively. Since then an immense investment has been made along the entire littoral to aid and control sea-air traffic and to establish an Arctic air-theater; typified by the atomic icebreaker Lenin, hundreds of air strips and radar posts, weather and sea ice forecast stations, and geophysical observatories. It will be remembered that the superb roads built for the Roman legions became peaceful avenues of commerce for centuries and the same will eventuate at the top of the world. Spectacular achievement in the utilization of the Arctic's natural resources will not be ac- complished in the polar summer-long day. The giant efforts involved can only be on a national scale, as exemplified by the intimate associa- tion between private enterprise and public interest which is responsi- ble for this continent's magnificent telephone system. The destiny of those countries with horizons in the big sky of the high latitudes is tied to the steadfast North Star, and it must be their guide. CHAIRMAN WOOD: Our next speaker might well be called "Mr. Arctic Geographer". He is Dr. Trevor Lloyd, Professor of Geography at McGill University. Dr. Lloyd, one of the most distinguished exponents of the field of geography, is so well versed in problems of the Arctic that there is hardly a subject he can't take over. He is basically a human geographer in the very broadest sense, and his topic today is "Human Society in the Arctic Today". Dr. Lloyd. HUMAN SOCIETY IN THE ARCTIC TODAY TREVOR LLOYD McGill University Montreal, Canada We have listened during this Conference to a well-merited justifi- cation of the importance of research in utilization of the Arctic. We 125
have discussed the arctic environment with its assets and its dis- advantages, and have heard how man may be provided with external and internal protection against its harsher elements through use of the right clothing, shelter and diet. We have learned something of the personal problems faced by men working in isolation under un- familiar arctic conditions, and have realized that, today, even the ends of the earth are not beyond the long reach of the clinical "head shrinkers." It has come to be the traditional viewpoint of the public at large that, so severe is the arctic environment, so remote and unfamiliar is it from the experience of ordinary man, that we can consider our- selves little better than transients there. Such limited experience as I have had of bases in the north seems to support this; if only because of the rarity of finding a familiar face at the club bar when returning after an absence of a year or more. So it is encouraging to learn at this Conference that this view is apparently changingâthat there is even talk of "conquering the Arctic." (See "Man's Future Con- quest of the Arctic" on page 115). Given time and continued scien- tific effort we may even learn to equal in adaptability and tenacity those admittedly gifted and dogged northerners, the Eskimos. How- ever, unless we surrender, permanently and soon, the view that there is some quite fundamental difference between the Arctic and areas farther south, we shall not colonize any appreciable part of it in the lifetime of those here todayâand our descendants may watch "The Northward Course of Empire", in Asia, spilling over the pole to become a southward one in North America! The task given me is to review the general distribution of human settlement in the Arctic, and to offer appropriate and even provocative comments on it. I shall resist the temptation natural to a geographer, to offer you a menu of maps, complete with great circle courses and innumerable isopleths depicting human, environmental or strategic factors. However, it may be useful to discuss briefly some of the terms to be employedâat least those used in the title. The title is Human Society in the Arctic Today. This suggests, as it is intended to, man living in organized communities. The precise kind of man seems to me to be immaterialâwhether one thinks in terms of nations or races. I am not one of those who argues that native peoples should be encouragedâeven compelledâto retain their old-time languages, customs, costumes or activities. One rarely hears this desire claimed by the natives themselves. To me it smacks too much of what a Danish friend calls "The Zoological Garden philosphy"âwith ourselves on the outside, looking in. If applied to me, for example, the role would require that I address you in the language of my fathers, Welshâa patent absurdity. A young Russian geographer friend of mine has a Tungus mother and is proud of it, but he writes his scientific papers, also with pride, in Russian from Moscow and not in a Siberian dialect from the banks of the Stony 126
Tunguska. Just as we permitâeven urgeâsoutherners to go to the Arctic to visit or dwell, I very much hope that we shall be no less encouraging when Eskimos wish to settle in the south, and if need be are swallowed up in the proverbial melting pot. The "Arctic" in my title is, for the present purpose, not to be interpreted literallyâor climatically. It is merely that area of the world remote from surface transportation and large settlements and with a particularly brief and inadequate summer. The term "today" is intended merely to stress the present as con- trasted with the pastâinteresting and important though that be. It is also to be thought of as including the todays that follow this oneâ so comprehending also the not too distant future. On considering the many communities that are scattered around the north polar regions, it occurred to me that we can nowâas never beforeâdivide them into two main categories. Were it possible to plot both of them on a map, the comparison between the two groups would be instructive, particularly to a geographer. Unfortunately, only one part of the picture can at present be revealed. My two categories are: (1) military settlements; (2) civilian settlements. Something of the extraordinary world in which we live is demon- strated by the fact that we can in any good library look up a map of the distribution of military camps and settlements in Roman Gaul of 2,000 years agoâbut not of the arctic regions today. Of the location, size and morphology of the military settlements I personally know next to nothing; so must leave it to some future historian or archaeologist to plot the map I cannot. Suffice to say that military settlements in the Arctic are widespread, some of them are large and many have all the attributes of modern towns, if within a restricted compass. It is understood that most of the problems of carrying on daily life at them have been solved, in the sense that the knowledge exists with which to solve them, and that any local evidence to the contrary such as frozen ears, inadequate water supply, inactive sewers, failure of the regular mail to arrive or inclement weather, is due to local incompetence, or unwillingness to read the instructions and apply them as ordered. Some of the remarkably extensive knowledge of how to operate complex communities in the Arcticâand the U. S. Army Quarter- master Corps rightly receives a large share of credit for thisâdoes permeate through to the civilian community, if only by the agency of surplus disposal stores and the skills acquired by defence contractors. However, the direct benefits to society as a whole are far fewer than they should be. A simple example will illustrate this point. At Schefferville, Quebec, about 900 miles north of Boston, is an open-pit iron mine that probably holds a record for the severity of its winter cold. Open air operations continue throughout the year. There is apparently a turnover of skilled personnel because of the severe conditions outdoors in midwinter. The mine management has 127
proved to be resourceful in dealing with engineering problems due to the coldâcracked booms on electric shovels are now avoided by introducing heating elements; freezing of rocks and ore to the inside of the Euclid trucks is obviated by passing the exhaust gases through their hollow sides. But when the foremen complain of cold feet and frozen limbsâthat is their own private trouble. If the winter clothing sold at the local store is inadequate, they alone must take the chilly consequences. I found, when enquiring there last year, not a trace of influence from the long and on the whole successful research pro- grammes of the Quartermaster Corps in precisely this realm. The feet of a mine foreman are his own personal businessâthe feet of a soldier on guard duty are a matter of grave public re- sponsibility! So much for the example. Unfortunately, for the present, the study of human society in the Arctic must exclude the most widespread, technologically advanced and doubtless most costly group of communities there and deal only with what remains, the groups of civilians. What is the nature and extent of these? Some of the newest, the smallest and often the most isolated are bases designed for scientific research. They range from groups occupy- ing floating pieces of ice, through isolated weather-reporting stations to more comprehensive and permanent scientific communities where several disciplines are more fully represented. Such scientific stations have in some cases become recognized centres for long-term research, such as those at Point Barrow, Resolute Bay, Godhavn, and at a num- ber of places in the Soviet Union. They provide possibly a prototype for other similar communities, to come when the scientists and the funds are more generally available. Supervision over the programmes of such stations is an appropriate activity for universities and bodies such as the Arctic Institute. A sharp distinction cannot be drawn between such stations and still larger, multi-purpose communities which may have scientific functions of an incidental character, as for example when the main purpose of the settlement may be commercial, administrative or related to long distance aviation. Such places may include a variety of scientific functions as is the case at Yakutsk, U.S.S.R.; Troms, Norway; Godthab, Greenland; or College, Alaska. The growth in the number of permanent scientific centres in arctic North America in recent years has been commendable. Canada had none at all even fifteen years ago, while the famous station at God- havn, Greenland was a lonely pioneer for almost forty years after the turn of the century. Mining provides a justification for new communities, frequently in isolated spots. A few have been founded within the past decade, such as Rankin Inlet on the west coast of Hudson Bay, Mesters Vig on the east coast of Greenland near Scoresby Sund and, somewhat farther .south though still in a severe climate, Schefferville, Quebec. A new 128
town that has grown up on the ashes of an older one may also be mentionedâKirkenes in northern Norway, a few miles from the Soviet border. The U.S.S.R. is represented by a number of relatively new mining towns. One within sight of Kirkenes is Nikkei', while other mining centres have developed at Kirovsk and Monchegorsk in the same general area. In fact the whole Murmansk region is highly urbanized with 84 per cent of the population living in cities. Farther east are other Arctic mining cities such as Vorkuta based on coal and Ukhta on oil, and in Siberia the farthest north mining city of the U.S.S.R., Norilsk, in 69° N. latitude producing nickel, platinum, copper, coal, cobalt, gold and smelting most of them. This city has grown to about 110,000 persons since 1940. Still farther east are centres of gold and diamond mining, which though more southerly are still in regions of severe climates. It may be added in parenthesis that I have discussed at some length with Soviet specialists the factors which determine the ex- ploitation of mineral and other resources in the Soviet Arctic, and conclude that there is in practice little to distinguish between those at work in the U.S.S.R. and those in North America. Capital is, it seems, not expended on economic development of the Soviet far north unless there is reasonable prospect of obtaining products at a competitive price. There, as elsewhere in the world, whether in the Arctic or in the Sahara, communities will be built as a base for exploiting minerals, if the economic prospects are inviting. There is after all it seems, no all-embracing Marxian Santa-Glaus. Mining communities, of course, bear little or no relationship to their immediate surroundings or to the lives of any local population there may be. They are really distant suburbs of some great metropo- lis. The need to attract highly skilled personnel and, more important, their wives and families, makes it imperative to provide all the comforts of home and others besides. This has, of course, always been so. One of the pioneer arctic mining settlementsâfounded a century agoâis Ivigtut site of a cryolite mine in Greenland. The contrast between its appearance and standard of living and those of the village of Arsuk a few miles away has always been notable and de- pressing. So is that between Yellowknife and Fort Rae in northwest Canada, or between Scherfferville and its Indian satellite suburbs. So too in Finnmark, the Norwegian mining town of Kirkenes, com- plete with paved streets, indoor swimming pool and resort hotel, stands out from the shabby little fishing villages not far away. In many ways mining towns in the far north are rather like defence communities. They cannot exist unless they are modern and efficient and able to attract some of the elite of the skilled southerly population. So they need to be planned, comfortable, and as well serviced as possible, in order to carry out the job assigned to them. Yet there are extraordinarily few mining communities in the far northâat least in Canada, and there does not appear any likelihood 129
that many additional ones are on the way. In the 20 or so years that I have been observing economic developments in northern Canada, the rate of advance has not been striking. Today a pioneer settle- ment, Port Radium, is going out of business, and a recent arrival, Rankin, may soon follow suit. In Greenland, Mesters Vig expects to cease operations, and the life of Ivigtut cannot be extended much longer. In other words the manner in which mining has been organized in the Arctic down to the present does not suggest that it will provide in the near future a rapid and sure means of settling permanently any appreciable part of the region. From a consideration of the northern communities that exist today, we can arrange them in a descending order of methodicalness and effectiveness: the defence community, the mining town and finally, the typical general-purpose northern settlement. I have in mind for this last category the villages or small towns of Alaska, northern Canada and Greenland, and I suspect that most of those in the Soviet Arctic are little if any different. The sites were in most cases chosen by some far off folk as hunting or fishing localitiesâwhere seals passed, water remained open, several travel routes converged or some other favourable factor ruled. Traders, missionaries, whalers and eventually administrators were attracted to the little communities for their own diverse purposes, and aided in their growth. No planning went into them, and little ele- mentary forethought. There is nothing unusual in thisâit is the way in which most of the great cities arrived on the scene, later to sprawl over the countryside. Boston, Winnipeg, Copenhagen, Cape Town and Moscow evolved thus. The Washingtons, Canberras, Brasilias and Chalk Rivers of this world are the rare exceptions. That most of the northern communities are poorly sited is to be expected from their mode of originâAklavik's many deficiencies have for example long been recognized. Godthab is in the right part of Greenland for a main centre, but in the wrong spotâa small peninsula, without a good water supply, with a poor harbour, no airfield site and little room to expand. Occasionally builders of northern settlements have been granted the opportunity for second thoughts about siting, but rarely have they had the courage to take them. The dead hand of the past has almost always proved too compelling. Those who expanded Godthab after 1950 could have looked elsewhere for a site but dared not. In north Norway the old settlements were all destroyed by 1945, but even then they were reconstructed sometimes on quite impossible old sites, such as those of Hammerfest and Vardo. These two have been doggedly thrust up again from the ashes, only to prove within a few years hopelessly inadequate as homes for modern commercial or administrative communities. Occasionally second thoughts came just in time to avoid wrong siting. Churchill on Hudson Bay was very nearly built at the mouth 130
of the wrong river, as is demonstrated by the hesitating way in which the Hudsons Bay Railway wanders towards it, crossing the Nelson River twice in doing so. There is less excuse for the poor siting of even more recent northern settlements, such as that at Resolute Bay. This focus of Arctic trans- portation was selected in the face of advice that it provided one of the worst harbours in the Canadian Arctic. It was in fact used, be- cause a harrassed ice-breaker skipper in a hurry could find nowhere else to dump his load when he failed to reach the assigned site farther west. At that time no preliminary studies had been made to aid in locating this vital northern settlement. That even defense sites have been chosen with less than Olympian wisdomâin spite of the ample skills and resources that might have been utilizedâis perhaps more disturbing. I recall two airfield sites in the Canadian eastern Arctic and two or possibly three in south Greenland that were less well located than they could have been. In fact all three airfields in east Greenland were from an all-round view- point poorly selected. Hence the communities that they now serve, or may serve in future, will be less well provided for than they should be. There is nothing inevitable about this. Some years ago a study was undertaken to locate a commercial harbour site in Greenland. The method followed demonstrated that when the specifications are clearly laid down and all available information is gathered, the job can be done quickly, economically and effectively. The general picture that emerges from this cursory survey of man living in communities in the Arctic is that he has generally contrivedâ through ignorance, haste, inefficiency, lack of enterprise or an un- willingness to make use of available knowledge and skillsâto build up a pattern of settlement that greatly exaggerates the acknowledged hardships of arctic living. In the case of mining communities there is some excuse in that the ore to be exploited has determined the locationâalthough even then there is usually some room to maneuver. The second time Yellowknife was built, it was a great improvement on the first, though the distance between the two is small. Schefferville contrived to be unnecessarily unattractive, and to exaggerate the hardships of the environment by simple lack of imaginative planning âsomething that its successor Carrol appears to be avoiding. As is being demonstrated at Thompson in northern Manitoba and at Otonmaki in northern Finland, a mining community does not have to cluster around the mine shaft like a medieval city around its fortress. Administrative and commercial settlements in the far north have even less excuse to be poorly sited or to remain so as they expand. There is usually a good deal of flexibility about the location as has been shown by the case of the old Aklavik and the new Inuvik. When it was decided to build a new settlement, all the necessary skills were recruited, and adequate time and resources made available, so that the Arctic's first adequately-planned settlement has resulted. This is 131
today still almost an unique example. In Greenland the very great expenditures on urban developmentânew harbours, schools, hospitals, fish-processing plants and so on, have been invested in sites hallowed by history but usually blessed in no other way. One exception is Narssaq in the south, where the need to build a shrimp processing plant has provided an excuse for what is in effect a new village, com- plete with Denmark's most modern supermarket. So far I have said little about the location of settlements in the Soviet Arcticâlargely because I am all too ignorant of the facts about them. I have twice travelled hopefully to the U.S.S.R., but have so far failed to arrive at any point north of Leningrad. I am however familiar with similar parts of Finland having travelled along much of the border between the two countries. From searching, if distant, views of "Nikkei' " I conclude that there is little to learn from Soviet arctic settlements. Its fire hall and Palace of Culture are not notably differentâexcept in scaleâfrom those at Alma Ata 2,500 miles away, near the Chinese border. Such is that remarkably monotonous nation that there is little likelihood that a burst of originality characterizes Soviet communities in the Arctic, when it does not do so elsewhere. Settlement of the Soviet Arctic is presumably approached in the same manner as that of Karelia, Kazakhstan and Khabarovsk; for the basic principles of the Soviet economy and the political theology that accompanies them know neither latitude nor locale. We on the other hand, are less inclined to be so simple-minded or so consistent. While the rules that govern the exploitation of resources on this continent require that a reasonable profit be forthcoming or the project cannot be initiated, fortunately there is one major excep- tion ; that the rules do not apply in matters of defence. This confronts us with the mildly absurd requirement that a telephone system shall declare a regular profit in latitude 40 °N while, if a defence operation, in latitude 70 °N it is not expected to do so. Aircraft carrying pas- sengers across North America in latitude 30 °N are expected to earn, at least nominally, a surplus. Those flying at 65°Nâif they are en- gaged in defence operations do not even need to publish a balance sheet! But this recognition that operations in the Arctic may deserveâat least in the initial stagesâlarge subsidies from public funds, applies in general only to defence operations. When it is simply a matter of resource development, and the founding of an economy that may in time provide a sound livelihood for a new populationâthe building of railways, roads, airfields, mines, harbours, oil wells, shopping centres and so onâwe reverse the polarity, and apply a different set of economic and social rules. For these, in our accepted terminology are "civilian" operations. There must be assurance of an operating surplus. And then we wonder why, in spite of a century of activity 132
there, the underdeveloped areas to the north of us have so little to show to the world. The reason is not far to seek. With a very few exceptions, no part of the Arctic has ever been successfully developed without aidâ whether in direct cash grants, indirect subsidies or by systematic planningâfrom the secure base of the organized community farther south. In other words, by direct or indirect government intervention. I am inclined to the view after some contemplation of the cir- cumpolar region, that none of it, including the North American Arctic, will be appreciably developed in the next 25 yearsâor possibly longerâwithout greatly increased use of similar techniques. I have some knowledge of one particular large-scale economic development that stands ready to be launchedâbut will require hundreds of millions of dollars to float it. There seems no liklihood that the guardians of private capital will round up those millions when they can invest them more securely in nearer, milder and more familiar latitudes. As a Norwegian business man, head of a very successful enterprise a long way north of the Arctic circle, said in a conversation last summer, "Bankers don't lend money north of Trondheim"! This discouraging assessment does not mean that there is no place for private investment in new northern communities, or that govern- ments will be called upon to plan, build and operate all future in- dustries and enterprises there. But it does mean that what has proved to be good for defence is in this case likely also to be good for the civilian sector: that there is nothing improper in the community as a whole deciding through its governments to underwrite a vast develop- ment programme in the far north going far beyond the resources or inclinations of individual investors. I hazard a guess that arctic settlement of the future will be brought about by greatly increased public expenditure, based upon the results of intensified scientific enquiry on careful, systematic and imaginative planning, and through concentration on selected targets, that offer the best chance of success. In other words, priorities will be set up, and the resources of the community will be brought to bear on those schemes considered most promising. There may still be some place for strictly commercial enterprises in the north, but there is likely to be a careful allocation of tasks between the public and the private sector. The sole criterion will be, "what is in the long-term interest of the whole community"ânot forgetting that part of it already living in the far north. If any genuine profit can be made out of Arctic development, and this there is some reason to doubt, it will have to be a secondary consideration. What is urgently needed today in the far north is to devote to non-military development, the kind of imaginative thinking, technical mastery, and sheer hard work that has gone into such enterprises as the DEW line and B.M.E.W.S. (Ballistic Missile Early Warning System). We need to apply to the 133
expansion of civilian society in the Arctic, for example, the results of the great research programmes of the Quartermaster Corps, dedicated as they have been to the service of the country, without consideration of private gain. Parallel with this must come a greatly expanded programme of research through universities and similar institutions, together with the systematic training of the new generation of person- nel needed to work in these still unfamiliar regions. While private contributions may aid in this, the main task of providing the large sums of money needed will, unavoidably, fall on the public treasury. If only because of the many common problems that exist within the circumpolar landsânot excluding the surrounding seas and the atmosphereâthere is an urgent need to improve the international exchange of scientific knowledge, as well as of scientists themselves. This will not happen of itselfâfor there are many and real obstacles in the way. Leadership will be needed. For example, a Conference of the type we have been attending here would be all the more stimulat- ing if its participants could bring contributions from all points of the Arctic. There is a long and honourable tradition of international scientific collaboration in the polar regions. Little would be lost and much benefit would come from reviving and extending it. Canada is, it is understood, already disposed to encourage this. Through the international, non-governmental contacts maintained by The Arctic Institute of North America, it should not be impossible to set up a programme of scientific exchange visits, to be followed by co-operative arrangements for study and research. Human society in the Arctic today still faces more than enough natural obstacles to progress. We should at the least be prepared to join forces with other scientists, wherever they may be, who are dedicated to overcoming them. CHAIRMAN WOOD: Our final speaker has chosen to discuss "The Role of Politics in the Expanding Utilization of the Arctic". He is Dr. George W. Rogers of The Arctic Institute of North America and is now in a transitory stage as Carnegie Visiting Professor of Economics at the University of Alaska and College. Our distinguished speaker has written extensively about Alaska, his most recent publication entitled "Economic Consequences of Alaskan Statehood". Dr. Rogers has also acted as advisor and consultant for the last three Governors of Alaska. It is a pleasure to introduce to you Dr. George W. Rogers. THE ROLE OF POLITICS IN THE EXPANDING UTILIZATION OF THE ARCTIC GEORGE W. ROGERS University of Alaska College, Alaska In terms of political organization, the Arctic might be described as the northernmost extensions of an array of governmental types. In addition to various northern territories and districts of Canada, the 134
USSR, and the Scandinavian nations, it includes the independent republic of Iceland, the former overseas Danish colony of Greenland, and an important part of the newly created "sovereign" state of Alaska. A comparative examination of these political organizations and their administrative problems in the Arctic would be instructive and useful to the purposes of this conference, but the detail required even to provide an outline talk would exceed the time limits. Further- more, institutional arrangements are not the crucially important political aspects of the Arctic. My intention is to be both more general and more basic than would be the case if my purpose were to present a political catalog. The choice of title places emphasis where it is intended, upon the role of politics as a motivating, dynamic force in expansion into the Arctic regions. Also as the final speaker, I would like to raise a question: Why should there be a more popular interest in the Arctic? The members of this conference have an interest or rather a variety of interests in the top of the world and in terms of your special interests you are somehow "dedicated" to it and its understanding. But to the outsider, to the general public, military activities are seen as a version of armed sentries at our northern gates, and non-military exploration and investigations are looked upon suspiciously as some form of ex- tending Boy Scout or university outing club activities into the later years of our lives and into an outlandish wilderness area. There is something of that element in it, of course, but there is more to it than that. In getting at this "more" element I must depart from the narrowly scientific and military tone which has dominated this conference and approach my subject from the attitude of the popular mind, i.e., the non-scientific and non-military mind. The title of this conference is given as "Man Living in the Arctic", but with the possible exception of Trevor Lloyd's paper, Man has not emerged from this discussion in any humanly recognizable form. We have been informed on the functions of physical parts of Man under various Arctic conditions. (There is available in the lobby a supply of copies of papers recently presented at a similar symposium on "Protection and Functioning of the Hands in Cold Climates". The title of that conference might have been "The Hand in the Arctic".) The papers given at the present conference have been enlightening. We have considered Man as a piece to be used in the opening plays of the deadly game of inter- national warfare. These papers have been frightening. As an Alaskan I must confess to be somewhat less than charmed by the role we were assigned in one of the sales points in Colonel Pearson's presentation (see page 35). To paraphrase Lowell Thomas at the close of his High Adventure film on the Arctic, I do hope that the rest of you are able to sleep better at night secure in the thought that tens of thousands of able young Americans are alert to intercept any enemy attack; and if they are not altogether successful, some two 135
hundred thousand Alaskans stand ready to sop up some of the radio- active blast and fall-out which would otherwise be unloaded on you. Frankly though, I could have done without the map with the neat little red mushrooms scattered about to illustrate how this would be done. The Rogers family happens to live at one of those points. Speaking seriously, Colonel Pearson and the members of our entire military establishment are hired by the rest of us to think and plan in just such unpleasant terms. If the unthinkable does happen, it is essential that there be an alert and trained group of our citizens pre- pared to move immediately and with authority along an already pre- determined and appropriate line of action. This is the role of the professional soldier in our society. He is our insurance policy, stand- ing by to be drawn upon in the event of an emergency which we hope will not materialize. To the civilians in the audience, our job is to think in terms of alternatives to war. Such thinking does not mean that we are opposed to the military view of the role of the Arctic which has been featured here, but rather that we must take a broader view in which the mili- tary assumes its proper perspective. Without this broader view we fail in a very serious way. This larger picture is what Generals Trudeau and McNamara undoubtedly had in mind when they stressed the dangers inherent in our allowing social science research to lag so behind our other research. In ending this section, I am acutely aware of the necessity to con- sider Man in the Arctic as something more than a biological or mili- tary concept. Man is essentially and uniquely a political animal. It is in this sense that I wish to draw attention to him in connection with the North. What are the motivations which have directed attention northward, and what are their underlying political nature? Let us review some of the more elementary and basic points already developed in this conference. Start with the general picture of the Arctic as one of the almost vacant regions of the earth. In view of the world's ever increasing populations we might look northward for the living space man so badly needs and will need even more acutely. But there must be a good reason for these northern regions being virtually uninhabited, and there definitely is one as the earlier papers in the conference have implied. The Arctic is a most uncomfortable place, much too cold for what we consider civilized living. Put into the economist's jargon, this is a general region of "low amenity resources". In order to sur- vive through most of the year, man must become a primitive astronaut somehow creating for himself a new outer body to make up for the shortcomings of the one he possesses naturally and creating indoors the elements which the natural climate does not adequately provide. In saying this, I speak from personal experience, not as an explorer or scientific investigator, but as a transplanted exurbanite living in the suburbs of Fairbanks, one of the northernmost outposts of 136
Suburbia, U.S.A. (There may be some purists in the audience who will deny me the privilege of saying that I live in the Arctic. This is a matter of definition, and during the long winter season, at least, it is the Arctic regardless of what they say. When I left home last week, the temperature was down to 38 degrees below zero, and from now on during the next three months all temperature quotations probably will mean "below zero".) In this Arctic environment we act like the proverbial Englishman dressing for dinner in the depths of the jungle. We attempt to be true to all the detailed rituals of our culture while living in this gigantic deep freeze. Daily we gallantly battle the perils of ice and snow in our non-compact American automobiles with automatic transmission. Nightly we worry and fret over our headbolt heaters which are essential if our beloved monsters are to go on living and dominating our lives. We are kept in a perpetual state of genteel poverty trying to pay the heating and other utility bills for our ranch-type houses. We even have a few worries about our active children suffering frost- bite or freezing their lungs on their way to and from school or their music lessons. Somehow we manage to keep true to our culture and keep up appearances. But it isn't easy, and frequently we ask ourselves why we bother to go on living in such an unnatural place. With due apologies to Dr. Stefansson, this "friendly Arctic" business can be overdone. During Alaska's statehood battle, our politicians regaled us with comparative temperature dataâwhy, it gets just as cold or colder in Montana and parts of the Dakotas, to say nothing of ever so many parts of Canadaâand we were cheerily told that the historical statistics indicate that the North is warming up. There isn't even cold comfort in such talk, for only a little reflection will demonstrate that those other parts of the continent which share our characteristic of extreme cold temperatures are not exactly over- crowded with humanity, and the warming-up process is a long term proposition, much longer than any of us can wait around for. Attempts to settle the Arctic and sub-Arctic in these terms is indeed a daft notion. At most we could take up seasonal residence during the warm period, take care of our business, and get out before freeze-up. This has been the pattern of the past development of the North. But somehow in Alaska we have been given a public conscience which tells us that this attitude is wrong. In Alaska political aspirations toward full statehood were based upon the idea that, not only was permanent year round settlement desirable, but even possible. It is, but at a cost. Public investment must be diverted to make it possible through costly community facilities. Private investment must pay a subsidy in the form of extra wages and fringe benefits, and the individual pays a heavy cost in inconvenience and added living expenses. Those who believe in the future of the Arctic as a habitable area must realize that the above-mentioned expenditures will be necessary. The satisfaction 137
of a basically Alaskan political tenet of faith seems to require that this be done. There are other social motivations causing some of us to continue on in our deep-freeze environment, of course. Whenever I begin to berate myself for continuing this struggle and subjecting my family to its inconveniences and discomforts, it only takes a trip like the present one to bring me back to my senses. The frustrating struggle from congested air terminals into congested cities, the hair-raising drives at top speed along crowded freeways (an ironic label), the polluted air, and the social violence and sudden death screaming from the morning paper does, indeed, make the Arctic and the sub-Artie seem friendly by contrast. And where else can such a relatively small collec- tion of American citizens, a group which could be lost in one of the neighborhoods of the Boston metropolitan area, enjoy and realize so fully its political destiny? Paul Queneau's paper has dealt with natural resources as a force for expanded utilization. The natural resources of the Arctic have been exploited in a sporadic and narrowly specialized way in the past. There have been periods of intensive whaling, long-term harvesting of furs, brief sorties in search of gold; and today a growing interest in oil, natural gas, uranium, and other basic minerals. The utilization of natural resources has been hampered by lack of knowledge of how to work and live in cold climates, to say nothing of lack of knowledge of the resources themselves. Such knowledge comes dearly. We have no estimates of the cost of needed basic data programs, but past ex- perience tells us it would run into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Private enterprise has and will provide much of the money, but breaking the back of these problems requires governmental investment in exploration and basic investigation on a large scale. Mere physical existence of natural resources, however, is not enough to lead to economic development. There must be markets, and the resource must be accessible to meet these demands. In the Arctic this last item is crucial as General McNamara and others have stressed. Development requires massive capital investment in trans- portation facilities, in community facilities, and in other basic public works. In Alaska alone, basic road requirements and hydroelectric proposals which may trigger further development are estimated to cost not millions but billions of dollars. The magnitude is such that public investment must be resorted to. The development of the Arctic's natural resources in something other than a selective, specialized way is therefore largely a matter of public investment policy. The decision as to whether sizable sums of public funds will be spent on Arctic development or elsewhere rests with various national political entities represented. Somehow a broader "public will" must be brought to focus upon the Arctic as being worthy of consideration. This decision is essentially a national political problem. 138
If the Arctic is not a promising place for human settlement, its resources may hold promise for future development. But its past and present importance derives from strategic considerations. From the early searchings for a northwest (or northeast) passage to the present day of ICBM's and atomic powered underseas craft and trans-polar commercial air flights, the strategic significance of the Arctic Basin has been increasingly recognized. Similar considerations applied to the east-west "Great Circle" routes prompted Mr. Lincoln's Secretary of State to engineer the purchase of Alaska and lay plans for a similar attempt to acquire Greenland. Here we are moving into still another level of politicsâinternational politics, geopolitics, power politics or whatever other term you care to use. The motivation is the economic survival of political entities. Depending upon the particular nation or period of history, the Arctic has presented a challenge in the form of a barrier to be overcome or opportunities to be exploited in provid- ing essential intra-national life lines or international routes for com- merce and travel in times of peace and for aggression or retaliation in times of war or the threat of war. Whatever the use contemplated, however, the purpose to be served must be a politically recognized and determined oneâone arising from an exercise of the apparatus through which the public will is discovered and interpreted. At this point an Alaskan footnote might be excused to indicate how other unrelated forms of polictical action in turn meet the strategic considerations in the narrowly military sense. The creation of the state of Alaska was a ceremonial event of the highest political order. In effect, the people of the United States, through their duly elected representatives (the members of the Congress and the President) entered into a compact (so described in the Statehood Act) with the people of Alaska, acting through a popular referendum, by which sovereign powers and responsibilities were to be shared. This purely political act carried out in a never-never land created by 17th and 18th century political philosophers has, we were told in previous papers, modified planning by the Army. Because of its more elevated political order, no part of the state of Alaska now can be considered as a potential buffer zone in the event of enemy attack from over the Pole or as land which might be written off as, at most, so much ground space over which an air struggle would be carried out. Colonel Pearson stressed that the Army still has a job to do to defend American soil from falling into enemy hands, if for no other than international psychological reasons. The political event of statehood, apparently, has heightened these psychological reasons far beyond what they might have been in its absence. Nor can existing defense facilities, the opera- tion of which comprise an important element in the State's basic economy, be freely abandoned in response to a logic arising from technological changeânot in the face of a vocal representation of the people of Alaska in the United States Congress. Clearly, the task set for me by the title of this paper cannot be 139
accomplished beyond the raising of a few questions. There probably are no political scientists in the audience; but if there were, they should as a result of this conference take a fresh look at the Arctic in relation to human affairs. To the student of international politics and political theory in general, this region is a very fruitful focus for study leading to an understanding of national aspirations, character, and activities. The intensity, purpose, and manner of carrying out activities in the Arctic can serve as an index of these national traits. In his recent popular book Ghost Ship of the Pole, Cross presents not merely a lively adventure story of Arctic exploration (the story of the ill-fated Italia, its captain and its crew), but gives an illuminating insight into the basic character and operations of a tawdry dictator- ship with political aspirations beyond its spiritual means. A more scholarly study and critical evaluation of other ventures into this region may be equally revealing in providing clues to an understanding of other national groups, including ourselves. But this is not the note on which to leave my topic. Rather, I shall leave it with a question directed to all of you as citizens of the western nations having a real, but as yet hazily understood, stake in the Arctic. As we each, separately or in organized groups, periodically re-examine and attempt to rediscover a national purpose, let us consider our rela- tion to the North. Then ask ourselves, "In these terms, what should be Man's place in the Arctic?" 140
