climate change – Promoting Urban Sustainability in the Arctic

Arctic Cities on the Move: Adapting to Environmental Changes through Relocation

July 7, 2017 Uncategorized 1 Comment

At the edge of town, a brand new playground sits unused, the swings perfectly still. The park is eerily quiet, with only a distant excavator piercing the silence. A lone Arctic Hare looks at me before bounding off. A few white wildflowers are blooming along the edges of the wide…

Reflections on Fieldwork in Yakutsk

June 30, 2017 Uncategorized No Comments

By Ksenia Mokrushina – SKOLKOVO Center for Urban Studies, Moscow The coldest city of its size or larger on the planet, Yakutsk is impressively vibrant and rich in cultural and urban life. Over the past 50 years it experienced an explosive population growth of 300% and is still actively attracting…

Debating the Future Development of Arctic Resources

February 6, 2017 Uncategorized No Comments

Robert Orttung, Tromsø, Norway Should Norway continue to develop its Arctic oil and natural gas resources or would Arctic communities be better off focusing on renewable energy? This was the hot topic of debate at the opening session of the 2017 Arctic Frontiers conference in Tromsø, Norway in January. Columbia…

Shaky Foundations: Urban Areas built on Disappearing Permafrost

October 19, 2016 Uncategorized No Comments

Last week, three of our distinguished researchers, Dmitry Streletskiy of The George Washington University, Valery Grebenets of Moscow State University, and Oleg Anisomov of Russia’s State Hydrological Institute, were featured in a Guardian article on the effects of thawing permafrost on Arctic cities. The Russian city of Norilsk, discussed a few weeks ago in…

Global Attention Turns Toward the North

September 29, 2016 Uncategorized No Comments

For many years, international dialogue about the Arctic has focused primarily on the clichés of stranded polar bears and a romanticized vision of a final frontier. In reality, the Arctic is a region that is incredibly more intricate, with complex and intertwined social, economic, and environmental systems. One goal of this project…

Panel Discussion at Inaugural Arctic PIRE Meeting

September 27, 2016 Uncategorized 2 Comments

From October 20th-22nd we will be hosting the inaugural annual meeting of the Arctic PIRE team, here in Washington DC. To culminate this multi-day conference, we are proud to invite you to a panel discussion led by some of our foremost experts in Arctic Sustainability from around the world. Speakers in this panel…

Project Launch

March 3, 2016 Uncategorized No Comments

Welcome to the Arctic PIRE website! We will be using this site to provide updates and information about the progress of our project: Promoting Urban Sustainability in the Arctic.This project will engage an international network of scientists to develop an Arctic Urban Sustainability Index. The Arctic region has also experience urban growth and…