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New Journal Article: Climate Change Has Awakened the Polar Dragon

Erin Sikorsky

On July 12, 2011, crew from the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy retrieved a canister dropped by parachute from a C-130, which brought supplies for some mid-mission fixes. The ICESCAPE mission, or "Impacts of Climate on Ecosystems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment," is a NASA shipborne investigation to study how changing conditions in the Arctic affect the ocean's chemistry and ecosystems. The bulk of the research took place in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas in summer 2010 and 2011. Credit: NASA/Kathryn Hansen NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

By John Conger & Erin Sikorsky

The inaugural edition of the Journal of Arctic and Climate Security Studies, a new publication from the Ted Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies, features the following article from CCS leadership:

Climate Change Has Awakened the Polar Dragon

By John Conger & Erin Sikorsky

Read the article

While the Arctic has long been a strategic domain, with Cold War superpowers competing across the frozen pole, climate change’s thawing of the icecaps is inviting new activity and interest in the High North. For over a decade now, China has recognized the impacts of climate change as a national security challenge – and opportunity. Nowhere is this more apparent than in its evolving approach to the Arctic. Put another way, China perceives the increasingly accessible Arctic to be a “near-China region” over which it plans to exert influence, a dynamic that only accelerates as climate change makes the Arctic more accessible and less remote. For the United States, these developments take on even more urgency when viewed in the context of the broader US competition with China, as well as the deepening relationship between China and Russia. 

Read the full article and the rest of the Journal here. 

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