Tourism, Climate Change and the Geopolitics of Arctic Development

The Critical Case of Greenland

Derek Hall

• Éditeur: CAB International
• Année: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781789246742
• Sujet: Business
• Sous-sujet: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry

Greenland is becoming a critically important territory in terms of tourism, climate change and competition for resource access, yet it has been poorly represented in academic literature. Tourism now features as a major source of income for the territory alongside fisheries. Cruise tourism is increasing rapidly, and might superficially appear to be best suited to Greenlandic conditions, given the lack of large-scale accommodation infrastructure and almost non-existent land routes between settlements. Ironically, one of the most spectacular tourist attractions is the large number of icebergs that are being calved as the result of glacier retreat and ice cap melting, both appearing to be taking place at ever increasing rates. As a consequence of ice removal, the territory's claimed extensive range of mineral resources, not least rare earth elements and hydrocarbons, are becoming more accessible for exploitation and, thereby, are acting increasingly as the focus for geopolitical competition. This book explores the nature of dynamics between tourism, climate change and the geopolitics of natural resource exploitation in the Arctic and examines their interrelationships specifically in the critical context of Greenland, but within a framework that emphasises the wider global implications of the outcomes of such interrelationships.This book is the first to explore these interrelationships in depth in English.

Part 1:

Arctic Context

1
Framing the Arctic

‘The Arctic’s always changing … Even in winter it’s not quite static. You can kind of feel the planet moving all the time. It’s like having an extra-terrestrial view’ (Sarah Moss, 2009: 62)

‘… the Arctic is not a single place but is a wide and diverse region that is in a constant state of change’ (Hansen and Johnstone, 2020: 296)

1.1 Introduction

Some two-thirds of Greenland’s 2.166mn sq km lies within the Arctic Circle. Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat) is employed in this book as emblematic of the critical stage in which the Circumpolar North’s future is faced with rapid environmental, socio-cultural, economic and geopolitical change. Just as tourism can open up societies and environments to the outside world, so climate change is opening up the Arctic, and notably Greenland, to forces of globalisation and the need to adapt to dynamic environmental, economic and political conditions. And confronting those changes, Arctic societies are poised at a critical moment in their development.

Although the book’s focus is on Greenland, the first three chapters attempt to offer an Arctic-wide context for what is to follow. The current chapter addresses ways of thinking about the Arctic and the people who live there, before the discussion moves on to interrogating the contemporary dynamics of Arctic development in Chapter 2, and of understanding the role played by tourism in Chapter 3.

A recent intensification of research interest in the region reflects at least three areas of deepening concern (Lee, Weaver and Prebensen, 2017a: 1):

• a growing social and political focus on climate change that is most strongly exhibited here (e.g. Barr, 2015; Broadbent and Lantto, 2016; Vincent, 2020);
• a heightening of geopolitical interest following a relative opening up of the region as a result of climate warming (e.g. Pelaudeix, 2017; Welch, 2020); and
• intensified debates over the sustainable use of natural and cultural resources, including those for tourism and travel (e.g. Bertelsen and Justinussen, 2017; Huijbens and Lamers, 2017; Bjørst, 2019).

Such emphases, however, have largely reflected exogenous influences on and interests in the Arctic, while the voices of those actually living and working there may represent considerably different perspectives – notably in relation to climate change. But, until recently, these voices have tended to be overlooked (Grydehøj, 2018b). This is a recurring theme of the book. Yet, the Arctic is home to 4 million people, over 10 per cent of whom are Indigenous – such as Inuit, Sámi, Nenet and Aleut peoples – and have long adapted to the region’s severe climate and extreme environment (Durfee and Johnstone, 2019).

Eight states claim sovereignty within the Arctic (a geographical construct which is contestable: see Section 1.3): Canada, Denmark (Greenland), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the USA (Alaska) (Fig. 1.1). These states vary considerably in terms of population numbers and density, territorial size, economy and style of government (Johnstone and Hansen, 2020a). Generalisations about the Arctic and its peoples are therefore dangerous – a strong caveat which accompanies the content and interpretations of these first three chapters.

Fig. 1.1. Polar view of the Arctic. Author’s own figure, modified and redrawn from Dillon, 2019: 7.

Dodds and Nuttall (2016) talk of ‘distinctive but overlapping’ driving forces that contribute to the shaping and reshaping of polar regions, and which they encapsulate in six eye-catching terms (Box 1.1). These can provide markers for some of the pathways pursued in this volume.

Box 1.1. Forces remaking the Arctic

1. Globalisation

Rather than being peripheral to world events, for centuries the Arctic has been tied to the global economy as well as being subject to the effects of increasing globalisation. Even by 2005 it was estimated that $230bn was being generated annually in the Arctic from intensive exploitation and export of energy resources. The growth of international tourism to and within the Arctic (Chapters 3, 6–12) is a critical generator of such flows and exchanges as the world (slowly) de-carbonises.

2. Perturbation

The Arctic plays a critical role in global climate dynamics, experiencing rapid physical changes in response to warming, with equally global consequences (Chapters 2 and 9). While ecological/physical disturbance – fate of sea ice, permafrost, stability of polar ice sheets – represents one dimension of perturbation, a perceived ‘broader sense of unsettlement’ includes socio-political dimensions such as forced migration policies (Chapters 2 and 4).

3. Amplification

This dimension has at least three elements: (a) an intensified shift and acceleration of geophysical change; (b) impacts generating second-order effects on marine and terrestrial environments; and (c) the creation of (unwarranted?) hope, fear or anxiety regarding future risks. As explicit geopolitical dimensions of such emotional states, the planting of a Russian flag on the bottom of the central Arctic Ocean in 2007, which inspired the Ilulissat Declaration (Box 1.3) or the Chinese aspiration to establish a ‘Polar Silk Road’ (Chapters 2, 8, 10) can be exemplified.

4. Polarisation

This term is intended to highlight (a) the growing activism of Indigenous peoples and circumpolar co-operation in the Arctic, involving sub-national governments and regional organisations evolving a distinctly ‘northern governance’ (this chapter and Chapters 2 and 4); and on the other hand, (b) the expanding interest in the Arctic of such extraterritorial actors as the European Union (EU) and campaigning environmental groups such as Greenpeace (Chapters 2 and 5). Such polarisations revolve around competing conceptions of the nature, appropriateness and sustainability of Arctic economic development.

5. Legalisation

This concept emphasises how the Arctic has become increasingly embedded in the workings of international legal regimes (this chapter and Chapter 2), creating ‘an ever more complex mosaic of governed spaces’ (Dodds and Nuttall, 2016: 46). Notably, as the central Arctic Ocean becomes more accessible through warming, international regulations relating to the high seas and seabed will take practical effect, just as the United Nations (1994) Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) has played an important role hitherto in the zoning of ocean space.

6. Securitisation

As a term employed by critical security studies scholars, this refers to the manner in which countries, regions, objects, infrastructures, resources and populations are ‘secured’. This can involve invocations of danger, threat and risk in order to lever political and financial resources. This highlights ‘power-knowledge’ relations in potentially competing claims and aspirations relating to Arctic-based resources (Chapters 2, 4, 5 and 8).

Source: Dodds and Nuttall, 2016: 32–57

1.2 Arctic ‘imaginaries’

Much social science has been concerned with understanding the links between how we experience, understand and order the world, and by so doing shape others’ experiences and understandings. In the case of the Arctic a number of (geopolitical) perspectives, conceptions or ‘imaginaries’ have been identified.

The imaginary constitutes within itself a loose frame for understanding that of which we have no direct contact … It can represent a means of meaning-making that is felt, experienced and embodied … and whether real or otherwise, the imaginary in a general sense comes with us and … shapes the sorts of worlds we create … the imaginary can become so entrenched that it becomes the way of seeing … that is difficult to dislodge.

(White et al., 2019: 2).

Steinberg, Tasch and Gerhardt (2015) order Arctic imaginaries into two groups. These and their relevance to this volume are presented in Box 1.2. However ‘exceptional’ and ‘extraordinary’ the Arctic may be, such imaginaries are being modified or enhanced by accelerating climate change and the prospect of intensified resource-led opportunities to produce new kinds of framings.

Box 1.2. Arctic ‘imaginaries’

Group A: The Arctic as a system of bounded, sovereign territorially-defined states, albeit with specific modifications that account for the region’s unique cultural and geophysical characteristics.

1. The Arctic conceived as a terra nullius, an unclaimed but potentially claimable space beyond the regulations of international law, where individual states are free to exercise their expansionist tendencies, whether claiming land, water, ice or seabed. This perspective, or rather the fear that others may hold it, is subliminal.

2. A moderated version of the above, where the underlying environment of the Arctic is more relevant but different, requiring different norms and legal regimes of governance. States are presented with a unique space of new and different opportunities.

3. The most conventional conception is that while the Arctic may not present opportunities for new levels of territorial formation, it does offer the arena for replicating existing forms, as in the calls for Greenlandic independence (Chapters 4 and 12)....

Table des matières

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Figures
• Tables
• Boxes
• Abbreviations
• Contributors
• Preface
• Part 1: Arctic Context
• Part 2: Dynamic Greenland
• Part 3: Conclusions
• References
• Index
• Back Cover