Pits at the top of the world
QUESTION A re there mines in the Arctic Circle?
Coal deposits have been mined commercially for more than a century in the Svalbard Islands, halfway between the North Pole and the northern tip of Norway, from sites founded in the 1890s.
Considering the debate about climate change, the existence of coal — the fossilised remains of luxuriant vegetation — beneath the coldest area of the planet indicates that the islands were in the tropics 360 million years ago.
The effects of mining, then transporting and loading coal onto ships on the otherwise pristine arctic landscape can only be imagined.
In the early years of the 20th century, the trade newspaper Coal Merchant and Shipper reported regularly on the development of the mining industry on the island of Spitsbergen by German and Russian interests.
Two mining companies were based at the town of longyearbyen. as late as
2008, 3.4million tons of good-quality coal suitable for industry was raised.
a third of it was used by an electricity generating station at the waterfront serving the small permanent settlement of 2,000 people who live in darkness for almost four months of the year and perpetual daylight from May to august.
The former mining village of Pyramid, owned and operated by a Russian company, was abandoned with the mine in 1998 after 141 workers were killed in a plane disaster.
Mining on a commercial scale ceased in 2017 and the area progressively returned to arctic wilderness as national parks. above-ground evidence may have since disappeared, but I was fortunate enough to have taken some photographs while on a cruise in 2009.
During the 21st century, the islands have become a highly desirable stopover for tourist ships, which are restricted in size and frequency.
at Ny-alesund, which today is a research station, you can see a locomotive and train that ran on a narrow gauge railway between the mines and wharf.
Keith Turton, Ashby, Leics.
CANADA, Russia and alaska have explored the arctic region for hydrocarbons, resulting in the discovery of more than 400 oil and gas fields north of the arctic Circle.
More than 2.6million barrels of fossil fuels are pumped out of the Russian and Canadian arctic each day.
There are large quantities of minerals, including phosphate, bauxite, iron ore, copper, nickel and diamonds, some of which are being revealed by shrinking ice caps. The arctic is on the cusp of extraordinary and irrevocable change.
Ian Dinnage, Aberdeen.
QUESTION Who was the first Smart Alec ?
FOR many years, Smart alec or aleck was thought to be no more than a generic term. However, University of Missouri Professor Gerald Cohen contends that he was a real person.
alec Hoag was a pimp, con man and thief in New York City in the 1840s. He worked with his prostitute wife Melinda and accomplice French Jack to steal from clients. Hoag paid protection money to two constables.
In his 1844 book The Mysteries of The Tombs, New York editor George Wilkes, who met Hoag in a state prison, recounted the con: ‘Melinda would make her victim lay his clothes, as he took them off, upon a chair at the head of the bed near the secret panel, and then take him to her arms and closely draw the curtains of the bed.
‘as soon as everything was right and the dupe not likely to heed outside noises, Melinda would give a cough and the faithful alec would slyly enter, rifle the pockets of every farthing or valuable thing, and disappear as mysteriously as he had entered.’
Hoag’s downfall was falling out with the police. He decided he could outsmart them by lying about his loot and hiding it. once the scam was discovered, the police arrested alec and Melinda.
officers began referring to criminals who thought they could hoodwink the police as Smart alecs.
Simon Griffiths, Conwy.
QUESTION Which country has the most extreme male/female sex ratio?
SELECTIVE abortion, prenatal sex determination and less favourable health treatment for girls are some of the reasons that have been suggested for the skewed gender ratio in several asian and african countries.
Female citizens and non-citizens account for just 26 per cent of the United arab emirates’ population.
This is mostly due to the high level of male foreign workers in the petroleum gas and petrochemicals industries. There are 8.84million expats, who account for 89 per cent of the population.
Second on the list is Qatar, where only 28 per cent of the population is female. like the Uae, the gender imbalance is mostly caused by the petroleum industry that attracts young, unmarried men to the region for work.
Immigration laws are more strict for women applying for work visas, so their applications are often declined.
Bhutan has a 46.3 per cent female population, China 48.71 per cent and India 48.2 per cent. In China, there are 35million more men than women. This imbalance has been attributed to a cultural preference for boys, which has resulted in sex-selected abortions.
Sons are seen as important because they inherit land, pass on the family name and take care of parents in old age.
Sue H. Graves, Lymington, Hants.