Canada's booth at the IPY Conference in Oslo. Credit: Mark Terry. CanadianGeographic.ca
THIS TIME: Arctic Tundra to Shrink by 51 Percent / Arctic aboriginals wonder if they’ll be pawns again in the new rush to develop the North / Methane Releases From Arctic Shelf May Be Much Faster Than Anticipated /
A movie that didn’t leave me indifferent…
How I Ended This Summer (Translit from Russian: Kak ya provyol etim letom) is a 2010 Russian drama film directed by Alexei Popogrebski. It was nominated for the Golden Bear at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival.
Synopsis: Two men working at an isolated meteorological station on an Arctic island gradually begin to lose touch with reality.
Resource development has only led to more misery for northern Russia's indigenous peoples, Larissa Abryutina from the Russian Association of the Indigenous People of the North, tells a Laval university conference on the challenges of sustainable development and sovereignty in the Arctic on May 18.
Pollution, alcoholism, poor health care reduce life expectancy to between 40 to 45 years.
QUEBEC CITY — Many of the 280,000 indigenous peoples of Russia’s north are watching their communities and cultures teeter on the brink of extinction as economic hardships force them to leave their homelands and migrate in droves to the city.
Many of those who remain behind have abandoned traditional values and become “profit-driven in their search for compensation for their traditional lands,” Larissa Abryutina of the Russian Association of the Indigenous People of the North said May 18 in a presentation to a conference at Laval University on sustainable development and sovereignty in the Arctic.
Like other speakers, Abryutina revealed a striking irony: that it’s much easier to find bad examples of development and self-determination in the Arctic than good ones.
Abryutina, a Chukchi, is herself a casualty of the desperate choices facing northern Russian indigenous people: a doctor of radiology, she left her home region of Chukotka due to its declining standard of living.
Two Arctic/North Pole scientific expeditions. Take your time and enjoy the Arctic! This beauty is fragile. Climate changes and global warming, you know, do gain ground.
Video #1: Jean-Louis Etienne’s Generali Arctic Observer
A famous French Arctic explorer Jean-Louis Etienne’s The North Pole balloon crossing from Spitsbergen to Siberia’s Yakutia in April of 2010. Check out the Generali Arctic Observer expedition website. More info on his landing and rescue operation in Siberia’s Yakutia, north from the village of Batagai, Verkhoyansky region, at eYakutia.com.
Video #2: North Pole + Nuclear Icebreaker Yamal + Magic of Arctic Ice
From Russia’s Chukotka via the North Pole to Scandinavia by the Russian nuclear powered ice-breaker “Yamal”. You may also want to go to the North Pole. Hurry up! The Arctic is melting fast. It sounds like a joke, but, unfortunately, it is not.
If you can recommend more videos with the awesome Arctic views, please, share. Leave your links in comments.
January 5, 2010
Every country, disposing territories on the north like Finland, Sweden and Norway cannot help but offers reindeer safari among its winter tourist services. Russia is not exception. In Russia you can choose between Karelia, Murmansk Region, Yamal peninsula and so on along the north of the country down to Chukotka which is separated from North America by the Bering Strat.
There are also such tourist services in America, but we are talking about Russia. And all the small peoples of the North living on this huge space use reindeer teams as traditional mean of transport. Each region has its own national color, and it I’ve chosen Sakha Republic and Evenki people. I have selected them in hazard because all these people with their reindeer teams are equally worth to be described.
First of all, a little ethnography, because such tours are not only adventure ones, but ethnographical as well. Evenki are a Tungusic people of Northern Asia. In Russia, the Evenki are recognized as one of the Indigenous peoples of the Russian North.
They live in many Russian regions, including Sakha Republic. There is a settlement in Sakha Republic, called Iengra. It is situated not far (according to the Siberian standards) from the city of Neryungri. Most people, living there, are Evenki. The tour operators offer to begin the nomadic reindeer safari tour from this settlement. It is a unique settlement, because only here the Evenki survive their culture and language. There is also an ethnographical museum in this settlement, introducing the visitor such aspects of Evenki culture as reindeer breeding, traditional hunting and shamanistic ritual.
A model nomadic camp is also represented in the museum. The folk music ensemble Yukte (spring brook) will fill up the canvas with their music and national costumes. On the second day time for a field trip comes. The reindeer-team driver (in the traditional culture of Evemnki reindeer-team driver is a woman) will train you reindeer-team driving.
The reindeer figures in Evenki traditional culture constantly: reindeers were gifted to guests, they were used as bride-money and every family member had her/his own reindeers. The first gift to the baby was a reindeer. The first mean of transport for a baby who can not yet walk was also a reindeer. The babies were pinioned to the pack on the reindeer’s back. By the way, Evenki ride the reindeers as well, not only team them. On the third day you will ride the reindeer too.
During the next 3 days you will drive reindeer-team and ride them (if your weight lets, I suppose. The reindeers are not horses). By the way, the interest to the encampment and cooking from the tourists is welcome. The nights you will pass in weather resistant tents. Finally you will return to Iengra. You say goodbye to your reindeer team driver and then follows the transfer to the city of Neryungri with accommodation in the hotel and reunion with the civilization. All you need to take part in such a journey is wish, money to buy a tour and Russian visa, getting of which is easy with our Russian visa service .
Yulia Buzykina
via Russia-InfoCentre Source: planetyakutia.com
2009 (c) ColdUnited.com
