Norway is transforming its last Arctic coal mine into a vacation location to add to your bucket list of must-visit destinations. It’s dismantling the area piece by piece, transforming it into a national park twice the size of the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming – which is part of one of the world’s largest intact mid-latitude temperate ecosystems.
The country aims to turn the Van Mijenfjord at the Svalbard Archipelago into the world’s best-managed howling wilderness where polar bears, seals, and other Arctic species can thrive. Experts say the area is one of the most resilient under threat from climate change, so it’s an excellent place to protect wildlife.
Currently, the Lunckefjell mine, part of the Sveagruvan mining system at Svalbard, is the most emblematic example of the region’s ongoing transformation – from an archipelago with a coal-mining-based economy into a yet developing post-extraction future.
Svalbard mining started in the 1870s, then boomed in the 20th century’s opening decades, becoming the foundation of several Norwegian and Soviet/Russian coal mining settlements that remain to this day. In the mid-2000s, rising prices for fossil fuels and minerals worked in the industry’s favor. They even influenced the Norwegian state company Store Norske to invest in Lunckefjell at the cost of over 1 billion NOK.
However, the high prices dropped, and the Norwegian state responded by putting production at Lunckefjell on hold before it had even begun. After a century of coal mining under state monopoly – even through climate change pressures mounting in the 21st century – the government announced a moratorium in 2016. Alas, Lunckefjell mine’s fate is not unique in mining history, especially today.
Now the coastlines at Svalbard are dotted with abandoned mining settlements and abandoned prospective camps. A team of ten researchers from REXSAC found interest in this situation. They decided to study how the people of Svalbard are and plan to deal with these challenges. They wrote in a press release linked to the research:
Ultimately, we want to find out under what circumstances the remains of past mining activities can become a resource for sustainable post-industrial futures in the Arctic. During two weeks, we conducted interviews and documented built environments in four different mining settlements at Svalbard – Longyearbyen, Sveagruvan (Norwegian), Barentsburg, and Pyramiden (Russian). We talked to representatives of mining and logistics companies, engineering consultancies, workers organizations, tourism firms, state and municipal authorities, museums, and representatives of scientific communities. Naturally, different actors had different visions and ambitions for the future of Svalbard, but on an overarching level, few believe in a revival of the coal mining industry. The future is post-extraction, and the future visions gravitate around two main activities – tourism and scientific research.
Tourism
The sublime natural landscape will be the main ecotourism magnet. It will feature a geopark, seven national parks, 15 bird sanctuaries, and six reserves covering two-thirds of the 23,500 square miles (61,000 square km) archipelago of islands, mountains, fjords, and glaciers. Three thousand polar bears inhabit the area all year, and during the late summer, over 20 million birds of 80 species nest on Svalbard.
The Van Mijen Fjord is a vital hunting ground for polar bears because it has sea ice year-round. For generations, Svea Mine has loaded ships with coal at the throat of the fjord, but that’s now being dismembered to ensure the area returns to a pristine natural state.
In June, the Norwegian government published a press release announcing the expansion of the existing Nordenskiöld Land National Park to include the fjord. The move will create an additional 1,125 square miles (2,914 square kilometers) of wilderness named the Van Mijenfjorden National Park.
Minister Sveinung Rotevatn said:
Our goal is for Svalbard to be one of the best-managed wilderness areas in the world. That requires us to implement measures to deal with climate changes and pressure caused by increased traffic. The protection of the Van Mijen fjord and surrounding area is a direct response to this.
The borders of the new park meet those of the existing Sør-Spitsbergen National Park, making it simple for visitors to see both.
Research, Learning, and Preserving
The Longyearbyen settlement hopes to increase its education and research activities. It aims to double the enrollment at The University Centre in Svalbard and offer various Arctic science study programs. The area is also host to other facilities, including:
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault – the world’s ultimate facility for crop preservation in the face of climate change;
The Svalbard Satellite Station (SvalSat) – the world’s largest commercial ground station that provides much of the world’s weather and atmospheric data;
Oreo’s asteroid-proof vault filled with cookies and powdered milk and the recipe to its world-famous cookie;
And the Arctic World Archive – containing a collection of irreplaceable digital artifacts from over 15 contributing nations and the GitHub Arctic Code Vault that holds 21 TB of public open-source data to preserve open-source software for future generations.
Another notable tourist attraction is American Benjamin Vidmar’s Polar Permaculture – Longyearbyen’s first outdoor greenhouse turned into a full-scale sustainable foods program, supplying the supermarket and local restaurants with herbs and vegetables. It also features tours for people fascinated with arctic agriculture.
Arctic Climate Change
Ecotourism is also rapidly gaining popularity through people wanting to make a difference in the world. For example, boat tours give people the opportunity to set sail and clean up garbage that has washed in from the Atlantic Ocean. And cruise ships stopping there run on fuel made from dead fish.
All types of businesses have directed their focus to be environmentally friendly and tackle climate change. For example, Svalbarði is a water company in Svalbard’s outpost of Longyearbyen, working to be a stable, ecologically positive contributor to the local community. It wrote in a blog post:
We started Svalbarði to be a part of the transition to a sustainable economy that protects the arctic islands we love. We have gained carbon-neutral certification by offsetting all our carbon admissions via support for clean water infrastructure projects in Uganda and Malawi and wind energy in China. We also give back to protect against the risks of climate change by donating to the Global Seed Vault’s biodiversity preservation work which has already saved crops threatened by Syria’s civil war. And while media reports often focus on how we – like many in Svalbard – are somewhat adventurous and eccentric, we always put education about Svalbard and the critical work to combat climate change being done here as a key goal. As a family business that heads out into the wilderness to gather iceberg pieces in the last few days before they melt into the sea and exacerbate sea level rise, we are all too familiar with the rapidly changing elements of the environment. We want to spread the message of how the people who live here are actively embracing perhaps the most daring and important polar adventure ever in keeping the area pure for the future of humankind. As the coal industry and the stories of those who toiled in the mines for a century fade into memory, the people who now live in the last community before the North Pole are driving the transition to make this Norwegian moon colony a sustainable forward outpost in the world’s efforts to combat climate change.
It is a documented fact that the Arctic is experiencing more dramatic climate change than any other region on the planet. It’s facing earth-altering situations – from melting glaciers and diminishing sea ice to rapid ecosystem changes and changes in ocean properties and atmospheric circulation.
Unfortunately, Arctic climate change has profound global consequences. All of the Earth’s regions are linked by circulation in the ocean, atmospheric, weather, and climate patterns. What happens in the Arctic impacts global conditions such as ocean acidification, sea-level rise, changing weather patterns (such as the monsoon), and permafrost thawing (which releases greenhouse gases). Therefore, Arctic climate change is relevant to the climate and weather in countries as far away as India.
So, Norway’s efforts in Svalbard are beneficial for the entire planet!
