Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Arctic Paradox (and How to Solve It). Oil, Gas and Climate Ethics in the Arctic

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The GlobalArctic Handbook

Abstract

This chapter looks at Arctic oil and gas development from the viewpoint of global climate ethics. The purpose is to analyze how topical issues related to climate justice and responsibility are covered in the current Arctic discourse. The analysis focuses on Arctic discussions on new oil and gas resources that become accessible as the sea-ice melts. It has been argued that the development of oil and gas resources in the Arctic is incompatible with the efforts to limit average global warming to 2 °C (McGlade and Ekins in Nature 517:187–190, 2015). Consequently, the way in which problems and solutions regarding Arctic oil and gas are defined and promoted has global significance.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 119.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    To frame is to select some aspects of perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating text, in order to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation (Entman 1993, 52). The last two issues in Entman’s definition of framing—moral evaluation and treatment recommendation—appear particularly suitable for the analysis of the Arctic case.

  2. 2.

    According to Goffman’s classic work on frame analysis, meanings only arise in processes of interaction, interpretation, and contextualization (Goffman 1974, 24; Vliegenthart and van Zoonen 2011, 103).

  3. 3.

    Arctic Oil and Gas. Sustainability at risk?, edited by Aslaug Mikkelsen and Oluf Langhelle, analyzes the expanding oil and gas activities in the Arctic from the perspective of sustainable development and corporate social responsibility, and presents findings on how “sustainable development” is understood and how further oil and gas extraction in the Arctic is often perceived compatible with it.

  4. 4.

    For more on how the discourse was constructed, see Notes on the material in the end of this chapter.

  5. 5.

    For example, President of Iceland, Arctic Circle 2014.

  6. 6.

    For example, Shell Alaska Science Team Lead, Premier of Quebec, President of Finland, President of Iceland, Prime Minister of Iceland, Chancellor of Germany, Arctia Shipping CEO, Umoe CEO, Team Arctic Finland at the Arctic Circle 2014.

  7. 7.

    At the Arctic Circle 2014 for instance researchers from Arctic University of Norway and UCLA.

  8. 8.

    Prince of Monaco, Arctic Circle 2014; Executive Director of International Centre for Reindeer Husbandry, Arctic Frontiers 2015; Professor Emeritus of Marine and Environmental Affairs University of Washington, Arctic Frontiers 2015.

  9. 9.

    Executive director, The Research Council of Norway, Arctic Frontiers 2015; also the report of an independent research group presented at the Arctic Frontiers 2015, Prime Minister’s Office Publications 2015.

  10. 10.

    For example, CEO, DNV GL Group; Leader WWF Global Climate and Energy Initiative, Arctic Frontiers 2015.

  11. 11.

    For example, Executive vice president, Statoil (Exploration), Arctic Frontiers 2015.

References

  • Arnold D (ed) (2011) The ethics of global climate change. Cambridge University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Baxi U (2016) Towards a climate change justice theory? J Hum Rights Environ 7(1):7–31

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Entman R (1993) Framing: towards clarification of a fractured paradigm. J Commun 43(4):51–58

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fisher S (2015) The emerging geographies of climate justice. Geogr J 181(1):73–82

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frumhoff P, Heede R, Oreskes N (2015) The climate responsibilities of industrial carbon producers. Clim Change 132:157–171

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gardiner S (2001) The real tragedy of commons. Philos Public Aff 30(4)

    Google Scholar 

  • Gardiner SM (2014) A call for a global constitutional convention focused on future generations. Ethics Int Aff 28(3):299–315

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goffman E (1974) Frame analysis: an essay on the organization of experience. Harper & Row, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Grubb M (1995) Seeking fair weather: ethics and international debate on climate change. Int Aff 71(3):463–496

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hajer M (1995) The politics of environmental discourse. Ecological modernization and the policy process. Clarendon Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen OH, Langhelle O, Anderson R (2008) Framework and methodology: regulation and discourse analysis as a research strategy. In Mikkelsen A, Langhelle O (eds) Arctic oil and gas. Sustainability at risk? Routledge, Abingdon, pp 87–108

    Google Scholar 

  • Heininen L, Southcott C (2010) Globalization and the circumpolar North. An introduction. In Heininen L, Southcott C (eds) Globalization and the circumpolar North. University of Alaska Press, Fairbanks, pp 1–22

    Google Scholar 

  • Jamieson D (1992) Ethics, public policy, and global warming. Sci Technol Human Values 17(2):139–153

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Langhelle O, Hansen KF (2008) Perceptions of Arctic challenges: Alaska, Canada, Norway and Russia compared. In Mikkelsen A, Langhelle O (eds) Arctic oil and gas. Sustainability at risk? Routledge, Abingdon, pp 317–349

    Google Scholar 

  • Levin K, Cashore B, Bernstein S, Auld G (2012) Overcoming the tragedy of super wicked problems: constraining our future selves to ameliorate global climate change. Policy Sci 45(2):123–152

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McGlade C, Ekins P (2015) The geographical distribution of fossil fuels unused when limiting global warming to 2 °C. Nature 517:187–190

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McKibben B (1989) The end of nature. Random House, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Mikkelsen A, Langhelle O (2008) Arctic oil and gas. Sustainability at risk? Routledge, Abingdon

    Google Scholar 

  • Mittler D (2014) The changing ethics of climate change. Ethics Int Aff 28(3):351–358

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Palosaari T (2012) The Amazing Race. On resources, conflict, and cooperation in the Arctic. NGP Yearbook 2011, 13–30. http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:uta-201302011022

  • Rentmeester C (2014) Do no harm: a cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural climate ethics. De Ethica: J Philos Theol Appl Ethics 1(2)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Riedy C (2013) Climate change is a super wicked problem. Planetcentric, 29 May

    Google Scholar 

  • Schönfeld M (2013) Introduction: plan B: global ethics on climate change. In: Schönfeld M (ed) Global ethics on climate change: the planetary crisis and philosophical alternatives. Routledge, New York, pp 1–8

    Google Scholar 

  • Shue H (1999) Global environment and international inequality. Int Aff 75(3)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vliegenthart R, van Zoonen L (2011) Power to the frame: bringing sociology back to frame analysis. Eur J Commun 26(2):101–115

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wapner P (2014) Ethical enhancement in an age of climate change. Ethics Int Aff 28(3):325–334

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Young O (2013) Arctic stewardship: maintaining regional resilience in an era of global change. Ethics Int Aff (online) 7 Jan 2013. http://www.ethicsandinternationalaffairs.org/2013/arctic-stewardship-maintaining-regional-resilience-in-an-era-of-global-change/

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tampere University, Tampere, Finland

    Teemu Palosaari

Authors
  1. Teemu Palosaari
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Teemu Palosaari .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Technology and Public Policy, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Matthias Finger

  2. Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland

    Lassi Heininen

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Palosaari, T. (2019). The Arctic Paradox (and How to Solve It). Oil, Gas and Climate Ethics in the Arctic. In: Finger, M., Heininen, L. (eds) The GlobalArctic Handbook. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91995-9_9

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation