Climate Action at Svea Coal Mine in Svalbard
The ship Pascha carrying 70.000 tons of coal in the Arctic archipelago during an action where Greenpeace activists have protested against coal exports from Svalbard. Coal burning is the greatest threat to climate, accounting for over 40% of all fossil fuel CO2 emissions, making it the largest single source.
© Greenpeace / Christian Åslund
It’s almost impossible to sit in sunny Africa and imagine what’s going on up in the Arctic. And yet, in that fragile, icy environment, one might find the heart of climate change - it is there that we see the greatest effects of the change, but also, oddly enough, where we find many of the factors contributing to our melting climes.
In this blog post, Frida Bengtsson looks at the outright absurdity of the coal mining industry in the Arctic:
I will never forget Pyramiden, an abandoned Russian mining town on Svalbard that I visited last year. Walking over green grass unheard of in the Arctic and passing by building complexes that could be the homes of hundreds of people. The feeling that those who lived there had just gone out on a day-trip and would be coming back soon.
The citizens of Pyramiden won’t be coming back, they haven’t been on a day-trip and no children will be playing in the playground. Miners are no longer walking back from their shifts and no more ships load coal. The last coal miners and their families left Pyramiden in 1998.
The town was a Soviet dream, food was for free, and the cultural palace provided workers and their families with entertainment. They had a cinema, a library, several music rooms and even a grand piano - said to be the most northern in the world. They also had a swimming pool, sports hall and a football field, along with greenhouses and cattle.
The coal in Pyramiden is difficult and costly to mine and it was decided to close it for good by the state owner Trust Arktikugol in 1998.
In the time between 1955 and 1998 the mine at Pyramiden produced 9 million tons of coal, one million of which was used to support the town.
The European superpowers of the 17th and 18th century came to Svalbard to conduct large scale whaling and the remains from that time can still be seen. The intensive coastal whaling, Svalbard’s first large scale industry, led to whale populations nearing extinction; causing whalers to sail to other hunting grounds.
The development of more effective equipment almost led to the extinction of some animals. In 1925 the Svalbard reindeer was protected and the International polar bear treaty of 1973 put an end to hunting for polar bears.
With the industrial revolution rolling out in Europe in the 20th century, the new European industries craved for coal and a new era of development dawned on the islands.
Today there are only two countries involved in mining on Svalbard. The Russians run a coal mine in Barentsburg and the Norwegians operate a small coal mine in Longyearbyen, a larger coal mine, Svea, in Van Miljenfjorden and are planning to open a new coal mine in Luncknefjell.
It’s a bitter irony, that a fossil fuel which accelerates both the melt of the Svalbard glaciers and the Arctic sea ice, is mined at the very place where climate change impacts most of all. For me coal mining on Svalbard should follow the footsteps of other industrial activities on the islands; it should be ended and frozen in time.
Despite it being such a delicate environment, big companies continue to pillage the Arctic for fossil fuels. It has recently become a prime target for companies looking to drill oil.
Join us in calling on Greenland's Prime Minister, Kuupik Kleist, to protect the Arctic and his country's economy by refusing all future drilling licences.