Media and the Politics of Arctic Climate Change: When the Ice Breaks

196 Pages·2013·2.631 MB·English

by  Miyase Christensen, Annika E. Nilsson, Nina Wormbs (eds.)

Media and the Politics of Arctic Climate Change
Also by Miyase Christensen
CONNECTING EUROPE
ONLINE TERRITORIES: GLOBALIZATION, MEDIATED PRACTICE AND SOCIAL
SPACE ( co-edited with André Jansson and Christian Christensen )
MEDIA, SURVEILLANCE AND IDENTITY: SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES (c o-edited with
André Jansson )
SHIFTING LANDSCAPES: Film and Media in European Context ( co-edited with
Nezih Erdogan )
Also by Annika E. Nilsson
ULTRAVIOLET REFLECTIONS: Life under a Thinning Ozone Layer
GREENHOUSE EARTH
Also by Nina Wormbs
THE SCIENCE–INDUSTRY NEXUS: History, Policy, Implications
( co-edited with Karl Grandin and Sven Widmalm )
Media and the Politics of
Arctic Climate Change
When the Ice Breaks
Edited by
Miyase Christensen
Stockholm University and KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
Annika E. Nilsson
Stockholm Environment Institute, Sweden
and
Nina Wormbs
KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
Introduction, selection and editorial matter © Miyase Christensen,
Annika E. Nilsson and Nina Wormbs 2013
Individual chapters © Contributors 2013
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-26622-4
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2013 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries
ISBN 978-1-349-44315-4 ISBN 978-1-137-26623-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137266231
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing
processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the
country of origin.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
For our children Lara, Dane, Vendela,
Malva and Katja

Contents
List of Illustrations viii
Preface and Acknowledgments x
Notes on Contributors xii
1 Globalization, Climate Change and the Media:
An Introduction 1
M iyase Christensen, Annika E. Nilsson and Nina Wormbs
2 Arctic Climate Change and the Media: The News
Story That W as 26
M iyase Christensen
3 Eyes on the Ice: Satellite Remote Sensing and the
Narratives of Visualized Data 52
Nina Wormbs
4 An Ice-Free Arctic Sea? The Science of Sea Ice
and Its Interests 70
S verker Sörlin and Julia Lajus
5 Signals from a Noisy Region 93
A nnika E. Nilsson and Ralf Döscher
6 A Question of Scale: Local versus Pan-Arctic Impacts
from Sea-Ice Change 114
H enry P. Huntington
7 Under the Ice: Exploring the Arctic’s Energy
Resources, 1898–1985 128
D ag Avango and Per Högselius
8 Changing Arctic – Changing World 157
Miyase Christensen, Annika E. Nilsson and Nina Wormbs
Index 173
vii
List of Illustrations
Figures
1.1 Sea-ice extent 1979–2007 3
3.1 Arctic sea ice ‘melts to all-time low’ 60
3.2 Satellites witness lowest Arctic ice coverage in history 62
3.3 Left, original AS17-148-22727 from Apollo 17
in 1972. Right, NASA Blue Marble from 2002 65
7.1 Coal-storage area at the Svea mine, Spitsbergen,
in the early 1920s 135
7.2 P ier and loading facilities at Longyear City,
Spitsbergen, early 1910s 136
7.4 S ketch of the ‘fender platform’, developed in the
early 1980s by Norwegian and Canadian companies 149
7.5 B uilt to cut through thick sea ice en route to drill sites and
to withstand moving pack ice during drilling operations 150
Maps
6.1 Map of the Arctic 118
7.3 Map on the front page of a Swedish coal-mining
prospectus from 1916, presenting the Spitsbergen energy
resources as easily accessible, ready to plug into the larger
infrasystems of Scandinavia 139
Tables
2.1 News pieces published 2003–2006 35
2.2 News pieces published 2007–2010 35
2.3 News pieces published 2003–2010 36
2.4 Sectional breakdown of the articles containing climate
change, the Arctic, and sea ice published in T he Guardian
in the period 2003–2010 37
2.5 S ectional breakdown of the articles containing climate
change, the Arctic, and sea ice published in T he New York
Times in the period 2003–2010 37
viii
List of Illustrations ix
2.6 Sectional breakdown of the articles containing climate
change, the Arctic, and sea ice published in D agens
Nyheter in the period 2003–2010 37
2.7 Frames, subframes and topics 46