Russia and the Arctic Region have long held a special fascination for me as a young Arctic scientist and policy wonk, so you can imagine my excitement when I learned about the International Youth Forum “The Arctic Expedition”, a one-week event to be held at Russia’s Lake Seliger in the cold of February. Initial details about the forum are sparse: the majority Russians are to host ten youth from each of the seven other Arctic States (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark [Greenland], Iceland, the United States and my native Canada) and we are to compete for an unspecified number of places on an expedition to the Barneo Drifting Station, striking distance from the North Pole. This “super prize” definitely piques my interest, but the prospect of intense competition is somewhat unnerving, drawing allusions to a Hunger Games style battle royale. The competitor in me feels up to the challenge, however, so I drudge through the visa application process and buy my ticket to Moscow.
I am greeted at the airport and driven to the International Youth Centre, our staging ground before departing for the Lake Seliger camp. The rules of the game are finally revealed: fifteen teams of ten (with mixed Russian/international participants) are to compete for points in daily “quests” over the four forum days, and the “best” five participants on the top team will win their ticket to Barneo and Arctic fame.
We get up early the next day for security screenings and our seven-hour bus trip to Lake Seliger. We are met at the camp by state media, security guards, people in aboriginal costume, a polar bear mascot and two Russian-language announcers, who add their voices to the wup-wup of non-stop techno music. There is a heated tent for each team and two large pavilions, the cafeteria and lecture hall, as well as sanitation and emergency aid facilities. Polar bear cut-outs and ice sculptures surround a skating rink in the middle of the complex. A lot of money has been spent! We are later invited to the main square for the forum opening, where a letter of welcome is read from President Vladimir Putin. The flags of the eight Arctic States are raised behind colourfully lit “BARNEO” ice carvings. Fireworks erupt from the woods behind the tents. This is serious business.
We follow the tight forum schedule over the next four days, with team events in the mornings and educational sessions in the afternoons. Each day is structured around a particular theme, with the four being: The Arctic as a Zone of Peace and Cooperation, Socioeconomic Development in the Arctic, The Arctic Conservation Program, and Arctic Science and Technology. However, one overarching theme is abundantly clear: the Russian economic and strategic priority that is Arctic resource development.
The daily team competitions, or “quests”, are interesting enough and we quickly gel with our teammates. On the first day, for example, we run around the woods looking for secret codes, solving puzzles to receive hints on their whereabouts. Later activities include taking selfies with a snowman, building a pipeline out of plastic cups and duct tape, and making a fire from local materials. Our team almost cracks the top ten in the team rankings, finishing in a solid 11th place – no North Pole trip for us!
Things start to get real at the daily lectures and panel discussions. The group of speakers is dominated by Russian government officials and businessmen with obvious ties to the oil and gas sector, including such high-profile figures as the CEO of Russian Geological Holdings (ROSGEO), the CEO of Rosatomflot – the state icebreaker company, the Russian Minister of Energy, the Russian Senior Arctic Official to the Arctic Council, and Artur Chilingarov – Arctic explorer extraordinaire and Hero of the Russian Federation. Independent scientists are underrepresented and indigenous people are conspicuously absent. Naturally the discussion is steered into development-friendly territory. Indeed, one could cynically describe the question on the table as: how can we best exploit the Arctic while appearing to care about the environment? We are wowed with tables and figures demonstrating the incredible resource potential of the Russian Arctic and the success of efforts to “clean up” industrial waste, as if the only thing polar bears have to worry about is rusting fuel drums on Zemlya Frantsa-Iosifa.
The issue of climate change, if acknowledged at all, is mentioned when convenient for development interests. There is tacit acceptance that long-term warming in the Arctic is contributing to sea ice decline, thus justifying investment in increasingly accessible Arctic offshore resources and the fabled Northern Sea Route. However, when questioned on the global consequences of climate change and the wisdom of continued investment in fossil fuels, the response is flat climate change denial. To paraphrase the CEO of Rosatomflot, “I’ve been a sailor my whole life and haven’t seen sea level rise … maybe university professors should turn the heat off in their offices.” The Russian audience seems generally pleased with this response, but many of the internationals are rightly furious. A later presentation by the lone Western speaker at the forum does little to dispel climate change doubt. My GREENPEACE and CLIMATE ACTION signs receive some nervous glances in question period, but go unheeded by the panelists – for the whole week! Those of us with less provocative signs manage to get some tough questions through, but it is mostly smooth sailing for the Rosatomflot CEO and his colleagues.
I was disappointed and a little shocked to confront such brazen climate change denial, but regrettably Russia’s pro-oil positions are not too distant from those being pushed by my own government in Canada. The unceasing promotion of tar sands development, the planning of new pipelines and the streamlining/weakening of environmental oversight are all consistent with Canada’s ambition of becoming an energy superpower, whatever the environmental costs. These realities and Canada’s dismal performance at recent climate change conferences seem fully in line with the perspectives conveyed by our Russian panelists.
I had originally expected to get a good dose of the Russian government perspective at the International Youth Forum “The Arctic Expedition” and I was not disappointed. Although government efforts to indoctrinate Russian youth likely met with some success, I also think that we internationals had some influence on our Russian peers, and I applaud Russia and President Putin for inviting critical Westerners like myself. Indeed, many Russian youth were not complacent in their participation either and were more willing to discuss contentious issues than most of the panelists. It is this open and honest discussion that I hope will help engender the mainstream climate action movement that we so desperately need.
It is important that we educate ourselves about the reality of anthropogenic climate change and that we be critical of our governments, wherever we live, and hold our leaders accountable. This means standing up to those of us who would deny climate change or its consequences, riding along with the status quo or actively pushing for expanded fossil fuel development. Russia and Canada, among the other major energy exporters, are guilty of this at the largest scale, but we do not have to be idle participants in the oil and gas economy. The threatened Arctic environment can either be a catalyst for change, inspiring us to kick our fossil fuel habit, or our next victim in a race to the bottom of the barrel. I think the choice is clear.
*Allen Brett Campeau is an MSc Candidate at Laval University in Quebec City, Canada