Friday, the G7 met in Iqaluit, Nunavut, 63 degrees north latitude. Canada, as host, meant to make a point, serving delegates from the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Italy and Japan caribou, seal meat and musk ox.
"We are a product of our environment and we depend on our wildlife, whether it be seal or polar bear or caribou," the Inuit health minister Leona Aglukkaq told delegates, according to the Financial Times.
Europeans, opposed to the slaughter of seals, were not entirely pleased. But it was a lesson in the changing politics of the far north.
"It's one of our government's priorities, the assertion of our sovereignty in the Arctic," Canada's Finance Minister said.
Books to read:
- Who Owns the Arctic?: Understanding Sovereignty Disputes in the North by Michael Byers
- After the Ice: Life, Death, and Geopolitics in the New Arctic by Alun Anderson
- Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica by Sarah Wheeler
We hope to be able to report from Longyearbyen, Svalbard (Norway), at 78 degrees north latitude much farther north than Iqaluit, this August.
See our photos (so far) from the Arctic in the Greenland Gallery at EarthPhotos.com. And read our story, Chillin' in Greenland.
(Photo from EarthPhotos.com.)
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