Abstract
Today, the search for new energy sources continues unabated throughout the North. At the same time, scientists are increasingly concerned over the degradation of the Arctic and sub-Arctic environment stemming from fossil fuel and other large-scale energy projects already underway. Similar apprehensions are expressed by indigenous peoples who have often suffered from the impact of such development. While the most dramatic evidence of environmental devastation and social disruption is found in the Russian North, serious problems are by no means confined to that area alone. Nor are these negative effects necessarily limited to the borders of the country in which they originated. Indeed, the deleterious environmental impact of our global industrial economy has become sufficiently profound that social analysts are beginning to ask whether development strategies that cause such harm to the Arctic and sub-Arctic region should continue; and if not, what should replace them. This article addresses these issues as they relate to questions of sustainability, equity, political empowerment, and human rights in northwest Siberia and northern North America.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Explore related subjects
Discover the latest articles, news and stories from top researchers in related subjects.Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Anonymous (1992). Proceedings: New Perspectives on the Arctic: The Changing Role of the United States in the Circumpolar North. Conference on U.S. Arctic Policy, University of Alaska-Fairbanks, August 12–14.
Andreeva, Y. N. (1989). Social and Ecological Consequences of the Perspective Use of the Central Chukota Hydro-energy Resources. Final Report, Institute of Biological Problems of the North, Novosibirsk (in Russian).
Arikayen, A. I. (1991). Sustainable development of the Soviet Arctic: Some possibilities and constraints.Polar Record 27: 17–22.
Behmann, B. (1991). Bioregional review of Hudson Bay projects proposed.Alternatives 18(2): 11.
Beyea, J., Joyce Rosenthal, and Jennifer Hansell (1990). Long term threats to Canada's James Bay from hydroelectric development.Information North (Arctic Institute of North America) 16(3): 1–7.
BP (British Petroleum Exploration-Alaska) (1991). Major Environmental Issues: Oil and Gas Development on the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. BP Exploration (Alaska), Environmental and Regulatory Affairs, Anchorage.
Cameron, R. D., Reed, D. J., Dau, J. R., and Smith, W. T. (1992). Redistribution of calving caribou in response to oil field development on the Arctic slope of Alaska.Arctic 45(4): 338–342.
Chance, N. A. (1990).The Inupiat and Arctic Alaska: An Ethnography of Development. Harcourt Brace, Fort Worth.
Chance, N. A. (1994). Contested terrain: A social history of human-environmental relations in Arctic Alaska. In Johnston, B. (ed.),Who Pays the Price? The Sociocultural Context of Environmental Crisis. Island Press, Washington, D.C.
Costanza, R. (1991). The ecological economics of sustainability: Investing in natural capital. InEnvironmentally Sustainable Economic Development: Building on Brundtland. UNESCO, Paris.
Daly, H. (1977).Steady-State Economics: The Economics of Biophysical Equilibrium and Moral Growth (2nd Ed., 1991), San Francisco, Island Press, Washington, D.C.
Fararo, K. (1993). ARCO's inlet find is big-league.Anchorage Daily News 1.
Hamilton, L. C., and Seyfrit, C. L. (1993). Town-village contrasts in Alaskan youth aspirations.Arctic 46(3): 255–263.
Harachi, S. (1992). Composition of the Yamal-Nenets District (in Russian). InKrasnyy Sever (The Red North) Salekhard, pp. 1–2.
Heininen, L. (1992). National approaches to the Arctic. InVulnerable Arctic: Need for an Alternative Orientation. Tampere Peace Research Institute, Tampere.
Hyde, D. (1993). The tyranny of small decisions.Canadian Water Watch 6(7–8): 2–4.
IARPC (Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee) (1991). Declaration on the protection of the Arctic environment and Arctic environmental protection strategy.Arctic Research of the United States 5(Fall): 29–35.
IARPC (Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee) (1993). Workshop on Arctic Contamination. May 2–7, Anchorage, AK (convened by the United States Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee).
Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC) (1992).Principles and Elements for a Comprehensive Arctic Policy. Centre for Northern Studies and Research, McGill University, Montreal.
Knott, D. (1993). CIS struggles to solve problems in pipeline system.Oil and Gas Journal (May): 29–36.
Leiss, W. (1990).Under Technology's Thumb. McGill-Queens University Press, Montreal.
Leskin, V. N., and Andreeva, E. N. (1993).The Regional Policy of Russia (in Russian), Progress Publishers, Moscow.
Medvedev, Z. A. (1993). Russia: Reactor redux.In These Times 17(24): 21–23.
Miller, P. A., Smith, D. and Miller, P. K. (1993).Oil in Arctic Waters: The Untold Story of Offshore Drilling in Alaska. Greenpeace, Anchorage.
Morehouse, T. (1984).Alaska Resource Development: Issues for the 80s. Westview Press, Boulder.
NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), National Wildlife Federation, and Trustees for Alaska (1991).Tracking Arctic Oil: The Environmental Price of Drilling the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Natural Resources Defense Council, New York.
NINR (Norwegian Institute for Nature Research) (1993).Global Change and Arctic Terrestrial Ecosystems. Oppdal, Norway.
North Slope Borough (1993).North Slope Borough: 1992 Economic Profile. Department of Planning and Community Services.
Peterson, D. J. (1993).Troubled Lands: The Legacy of Soviet Environmental Destruction. Westview Press, Boulder.
Pika, A., and Prokhorov, B. (1989). Soviet Union: The Big Problems of Small Ethnic Groups. Document 57, International Working Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA), Copenhagen, pp. 123–135.
Pika, A., Chance, N. (1993). Nenets and Khanty of the Russian Federation. InState of the Peoples: A Global Human Rights Report on Societies in Danger. Beacon Press, Boston, p. 122.
Prokhorov, B. (1989). USSR: How to save Yamal.IWGIA Newsletter 58(August): 113–128.
Pryde, P. R. (1991).Environmental Management in the Soviet Union. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Reller, C. (1992). Panelist (remarks) in “Sustainable northern economies: Red dog mine,” InIARPC, The Changing Role of the U.S. in the Circumpolar North, Fairbanks, p. 46.
Resnick, S., and Wolff, R. (1992).State Capitalism in the USSR? Part One: A High-States Debate. Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Resnick, S., and Wolff, R. (1993).Between State and Private Capitalism, What was Soviet “Socialism?” Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Roginko, A. Y. (1992). Conflict between environment and development in the Soviet Arctic. In Kakonen, J. (ed.),Vulnerable Arctic: Need for an Alternative Orientation. Tampere Peace Research Institute Report 47, Tampere, pp. 144–154.
Salpukas, A. (1993). House panel told Alaska pipeline is troubled and risks breakdown.New York Times Nov. 11, Section B, p. 14.
Shively, J. (1992). Sustainable northern economies: Red dog mine. InIARPC, The Changing Role of the U.S. in the Circumpolar North. Fairbanks, pp. 47–50.
Sizy, F. (1988). The Price of Yamal.Ogonyok 46(Nov.): 20–21.
Taksami, C. (1989). Opening Speech at the Congress of Small Indigenous Peoples of the Soviet North. Association of the Small Peoples of the Soviet North, Moscow. Document 67, International Working Group for Indigenous Affairs, Copenhagen.
Tennberg, M. (1992). The Rovaniemi Process and New International Actors. Paper presented at the First International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences, Universite Laval, Ste-Foy, Quebec.
Thing, H. (1993). Protection of the Arctic environment: Second ministerial conference.Northern Sciences Network News (October).
Trustees for Alaska, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the National Wildlife Federation (1988).Oil in the Arctic: The Environmental Record of Oil Development on Alaska's North Slope. Natural Resources Defense Council, New York.
Tyson, R. (1993). Some winners, some losers: Alaska's oil industry review and forecast.Alaska Business Review February, pp. 18–22.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (1987). Comparison of Actual and Predicted Impacts of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System and Prudhoe Bay Oilfields on the North Slope of Alaska.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Fairbanks Fish and Wildlife Enhancement Office, Fairbanks, Alaska, December, 59 pp.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (1988).Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Draft Comprehensive Conservation Plan, Environmental Impact Statement, Wilderness Review, and Wild River Plan. Anchorage, Alaska.
United Nations Commission on Environment and Development (1987).Our Common Future. Oxford University Press, New York.
Vakhtin, N. (1992).Native Peoples of the Russian Far North. The Minority Rights Group International, London.
Vitebsky, P. (1990). Gas, environmentalism and native anxieties in the Soviet Arctic: The case of Yamal Peninsula.Polar Record 6: 19–26.
Watkins, T. H. (1988).Vanishing Arctic: Alaska's National Wildlife Refuge. Aperture, New York.
Westermeyer, W. E. (1987). The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Competing National Interests. Mimeograph.
Ziegler, C. E. (1987).Environmental Policy in the U.S.S.R. Amherst. University of Massachusetts.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chance, N.A., Andreeva, E.N. Sustainability, equity, and natural resource development in Northwest Siberia and Arctic Alaska. Hum Ecol 23, 217–240 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01191650
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01191650