Polar experts attending a United Nations-sponsored conference in Iceland launched a push Tuesday to protect the Arctic from environmental devastation - possibly through an international treaty that could challenge Prime Minister Stephen Harper's vision of the region as a treasure chest of resources.
Earlier this year in Greenland at a five-nation summit, Canada, Russia, Norway, the U.S. and host Denmark signed the Ilullisat Declaration, vowing to balance economic and ecological interests in the Arctic, but rejecting the need for a UN-backed international treaty - similar to one that protects Antarctica - to govern the Arctic.
Delegates gathering this week in Iceland, however, expressed doubt that the five nations with Arctic Ocean coastlines - and the most to gain from future Arctic oil drilling - would serve adequately as guardians of the northern polar region, widely seen by scientists as a crucial component of planetwide climate, ocean and biological systems.
"Many experts believe this new rush to the polar regions is not manageable within existing international law," A.H. Zakri, director of the United Nations University's Japan-based Institute of Advanced Studies, said at the outset of the conference.
The experts were still finalizing their recommendations late Tuesday, but conference chairman David Leary, a specialist in international law at the institute, said delegates strongly agreed on the need for more stringent protection of the Arctic.
"The final message," Leary told Canwest News Service, "is that, regardless of whether we go for a new treaty or the states of the Arctic live up to the commitments they've made with regard to stewardship, we need more effective environmental governance."
Highlighting potential threats to the Arctic's "fragile ecosystem" from increased shipping and oil exploration, the Iceland delegates painted a much different picture of the Arctic than the "use it or lose it" vision championed by Harper during his pre-election swing through the Canadian North.
"There is gas in the Beaufort, oil in the Eastern Arctic, and gold in the Yukon. There are diamonds in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, and countless other precious resources buried under the ice, sea and tundra," Harper said. "But what we've found so far is merely the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Managed properly, Canada's share of this incredible endowment will fuel the prosperity of our country for generations."
The prime minister announced some environmental measures during the trip. He also asserted Canada's extended authority over the Northwest Passage's newly opened shipping lanes, partly to protect Arctic waters from pollution.
But opposition leaders, who denounced Harper's emphasis on exploiting Arctic oil and gas, will hear echoes of their stated concerns about climate change coming from the Iceland conference.
And nature, too, may be conspiring to push the Arctic's environmental predicament into the spotlight of the federal election campaign.
After an unprecedented thaw of polar sea ice in August, an increasing number of scientists now expect this summer's Arctic ice retreat to match or exceed last summer's record meltdown within the next week or two.
And a Norwegian institute declared this week that the simultaneous opening of polar sea routes above Canada and Russia is "something that has probably not happened since before the last Ice Age, 100,000 to 125,000 years ago."