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Dublin is about 6,500 kilometers from the North Pole, but what is happening on top of the world is apparently of strategic national interest.
Last week, Foreign Minister Simon Coveney informed the Dáil that Santa Claus will be exempt from all coronavirus restrictions, a clear priority for the children of Ireland.
This week, he was briefing Cabinet on why Ireland needs to obtain observer status at the Arctic Council.
There are only eight members of the Arctic Council: Canada, Finland, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Russia, the United States and Denmark.
So where does Ireland fit in? And why do you want to do it?
Well, ministers accepted Simon Coveney’s argument that observer status would improve Ireland’s understanding of climate change in the Arctic and its effects on sea level, a problem that will affect us more and more.
Our main economic focus is fish.
That’s because species are increasingly moving north as sea temperatures rise, and Ireland needs to control the impacts on its fishing industry.
This is already of interest to Ireland, as it currently chairs an international commission called OSPAR, which seeks to protect the marine environment in the northeast Atlantic.
An initiative that Ireland is promoting, through OSPAR, is the delivery of a Marine Protected Area on the high seas to protect seabirds of approximately 641,000 square kilometers.
Our application to the Arctic Council will be considered at their May meeting in Iceland. Positive diplomatic polls suggest it should be successful.
However, economic giants China and India, as well as half a dozen EU states, are already among the 13 nations with observer status on the Arctic Council, and it is not due to fish stocks.
As the impacts of climate change worsen and Arctic sea ice disappears, this opens a new frontier for global shipping lines and, possibly, but controversially, energy exploration.
And the sea ice is disappearing.
The US National Ice and Snow Data Center recently found: “On October 24, the Arctic sea ice extent had its largest deviation from the 1981 to 2010 average daily sea ice extent in the satellite record. continuous 42 years “.
On an assignment in Greenland last year, for the ‘RTÉ On Climate’ series, I spoke with the Ilulissat fishermen, who told me that the sea ice that annually surrounded their town had disappeared during their lifetime.
Put bluntly, less sea ice means more opportunities for extractive industries.
Environmentalists will liken that thought to someone on the Titanic trying to make money after the lifeboats have already been launched.
But it does explain why there is an intensified focus on the Arctic.
However, Ireland’s icy ambitions don’t stop there. The South Pole is also in our sights.
Green Party Deputy Minister Malcolm Noonan is firm in the view that Ireland should join the Antarctic Treaty.
You read that right: Antarctica, loved by explorer Tom Crean.
The Antarctic Treaty is a 60-year agreement, signed by 54 countries, that seeks primarily to conserve the continent, promote scientific research, and prevent militarization.
Mr. Noonan confirmed to me that he has already written to the Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Minister Coveney about the matter.
Noonan sees “huge benefits” if Ireland joins and, with that in mind, intends to raise the matter with the cabinet’s environment subcommittee in January.
It will probably surprise most people that Ireland is interested in the Arctic or Antarctica.
However, for activists like Mike Walker, it all makes sense.
He is a consultant to the Southern and Antarctic Ocean Coalition, and told me that Ireland’s attempt to obtain observer status on the Arctic Council is “very welcome.”
As Mr. Noonan argues, “We should also join the Antarctic Treaty.”
Walker explains that both the Arctic and Antarctica are “crucial to our health and the daily functioning of the planet.”
“But both are under extraordinary pressure due to climate change and loss of biodiversity. Perversely, this is resulting in even greater pressure as states seek to exploit commercial fish populations that migrate poleward into colder, mineral waters. exposed by retreating ice or new trade routes.
“This in turn is aggravating dangerous geopolitical tensions at both poles.”
Walker believes that Ireland has a role to play: “As an island nation, neutral arbiter and future champion of ambitious climate action, Ireland is perfectly positioned to advocate for the conservation and protection of these two critical areas for the health of the planet.” .
Ireland: pole to pole. What would Tom Crean have thought?
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