Last year it didn't snow much at my favorite ski hill, and to start this year's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, mushers and dogs were trucked north to Fairbanks. Alaskans aren't sure whether the meeting of diplomats and climate scientists Secretary of State John Kerry convened here this week could possibly fix this coming winter's weather (my money's on no), but we are hopeful the first-ever visit to the Arctic by a commander-in-chief will result in practical improvements here -- and for the world -- anyway.
First, leaders must consider the realities of a new ocean. Receding ice is making more of the Arctic navigable, more months of the year. If the ice were receding from an isthmus rather than an ocean, we'd think about digging a canal. Instead, this president could share a legacy with Teddy Roosevelt, who built the Panama Canal, if he makes sure these new sea lanes are safe, secure and reliable. The world would use them, and distance-savings would reduce greenhouse gases and help make the economy more efficient in the process.
Together with President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson of Iceland and various partners including Alice Rogoff, publisher of Alaska Dispatch News, I recently helped to convene The Alaskan Arctic: A Summit on Shipping and Ports, in advance of President Obama's visit. It detailed ways we could commit to build new icebreakers for the U.S. Coast Guard, and invite other nations to join us in a managed seaway, like we have with Canada on the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes. Russia's bear's share of the world's Arctic icebreakers threatens security; diversifying control of Arctic seaways would benefit commerce and peace. Even the Asian nations coming, who would realize more efficient global shipping to Europe, could help.
Second, we hope the president will recognize the challenges Arctic communities face come not mostly from climate change, but from high energy costs, distance and rapid change of all kinds. Oil and gas development has helped give us and other Arctic residents the means to help solve these problems, and calls to shut down the Arctic economy to save the Arctic make no sense. A climate meeting to raise carbon taxes and impose restrictions on power sources and motor vehicles is an insult that would make life tougher.
Six of the eight Arctic nations are working to develop Arctic energy today. Our economic and national security will pay a steep price if we simply choose to view America's role in the Arctic as fighting climate change and designating areas off-limits to development. It is estimated development of the Chukchi Sea, where Shell is drilling this summer, and Beaufort Sea alone could generate over 54,000 jobs, $145 billion in payroll, and $193 billion in government revenue. Development in these areas would also help refill the trans-Alaska pipeline -- a vital artery for domestic oil that has supplied America for a generation.
The Arctic is a test bed for new forms of solar, geothermal, wind-diesel and water power, as well as insulation techniques. If you're looking for an "all-of-the-above" energy policy, Alaska is the right place -- just look what continuous summer sunlight has done for the cabbages at the state fair.
An Arctic energy summit will follow the Kerry meeting in a few weeks, and a number of technologies being discussed will help poor people without power in many parts of the world.
Third, too often participants in a climate meeting like to pronounce that the science is behind us. It is not. A climate meeting in the Arctic would be based on junk science if it did not recognize that "short-term climate forcers" like soot from forest fires and methane release from tundra ponds are having a large, if not larger impact on melting sea ice and glaciers than energy use and belching cattle around the world. These forcers are hard to reverse or contain, no matter what the globe's energy policy. I love to catch and eat salmon, and just like salmon, I also eat shellfish. Ocean acidification could take those foods away. Practical science is necessary to address these issues, too.
America has to lead in the Arctic, not just by taking the chairmanship of the Arctic Council, but by showing the world the realities of the North and responding to them. From here, we help feed the world, fuel the world, provision the world, connect the world by air and sea, protect the world with our strategic location, and I daresay, inspire the world with our scenery, our hardy indigenous cultures, and our reality TV dramas.
We want to do more of it. We feel we could if we were better understood.
Mead Treadwell was Alaska's lieutenant governor from 2010 to 2014, and is now president of Pt Capital, an Arctic-focused private equity firm.
Editors' note: Alaska Dispatch News owner and publisher Alice Rogoff is a senior member of Pt Capital's advisory board.
The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com