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Winds of the new cold war are howling in the Arctic
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a number of countries – under pressure from Nato – have withdrawn from the multilateral Arctic Council, reports VIJAY PRASHAD
ICY: People on ski-doo’s admire an optical ‘halo’ produced by ice crystals in cirrus clouds high in the upper troposphere, on the island of Spitsbergen on the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Circle

IN 1996, the eight countries on the Arctic rim — Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States — formed the Arctic Council, a journey that began in 1989 when Finland approached the other countries to hold a discussion about the Arctic environment. 

The Finnish initiative led to the Rovaniemi Declaration (1991), which established the council’s precursor, the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy.

The main concern for these governments at the time was the impact of “global pollution and resulting environmental threats” to the Arctic, which was destroying the region’s ecosystem. 

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