Coast Guard expands mission to Arctic
For better or worse, the forbidding, once-frozen Arctic some day may be as navigable as the Atlantic, and the Coast Guard must live up to its motto, Semper Paratus: Always ready. I t’s both troubling and encouraging that because of melting sea ice the U.S. Coast Guard and similar entities from seven other nations have begun planning for increased human activity along the Northern Sea Route.
Mounting scientific evidence on the effects of global warming has conclusively and disturbingly established that formerly ice-choked seas are rapidly becoming open water, which means there will be more maritime traffic in areas that were previously inaccessible.
Climate-change deniers who have taken a head-in-the-sand approach to grim reality should finally acknowledge that warnings about shrinking polar ice caps are not coming just from radical environmentalists.
Last week, in a landmark ceremony at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, officials from the United States, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the Russian Federation formally established the Arctic Coast Guard Forum, designed to help promote cooperation on such issues as environmental preservation and searchand-rescue missions.
This newspaper supports such forward-thinking initiatives and is especially pleased that the Coast Guard, which has such strong ties to the region, will play a deservedly pivotal role in safeguarding the Arctic’s future.
The Coast Guard is no stranger to the Arctic, having been assigned to patrol its waters after the United States purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867. Over the past century and a half the service has carried out countless critical missions, including searches and rescues, along with supervising cleanups from devastating oil spills. Two months ago the Coast Guard Cutter Healy became the first U.S. surface vessel to reach the North Pole unaccompanied.
Such challenging assignments will become more prevalent as activity in the Arctic expands at a rate inversely proportional to the shrinking ice, particularly among cruise ships. One such vessel already is preparing next year to traverse the Northwest Passage, a much-storied sea route connecting the northern Atlantic and Pacific oceans first navigated by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen in the early 1900s and previously thought to be impassable.
The newly established forum will be charged with promoting cooperation and sharing of resources among the eight nations that border the Arctic — including some global adversaries. The United States and Russia may be at odds over conflicts in the Ukraine, Syria and other regions, but we hope the two will build on mutual interests in the Arctic just as they have formed partnerships in space missions.
U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft said last week he foresees cooperative agreements between the United States, which has only two active icebreakers, and Russia, which has 40, including some that are nuclear powered. It was a good sign last week that Adm. Zukunft’s Russian counterpart, Adm. Yuri Alekseyev, attended the ceremony and signed the agreement.
“Russia has the preponderance of the resources when it comes to the Arctic domain,” Zukunft said. “So it’s critical to have them at the table if we’re going to have a joint statement that really has some unity.”
An anticipated influx of maritime activity also will expose Arctic’s fragile environment to potential ecological degradation, and we encourage forum members to adopt policies that will promote preservation over commercial exploitation.
For better or worse, the forbidding, once-frozen Arctic some day may be as navigable as the Atlantic, and the Coast Guard must live up to its motto, Semper Paratus: Always ready.