“Commons” concerns in search of uncommon solutions: Arctic contaminants, catalyst of change?

The Arctic Ocean is of increasing interest internationally, as a transportation route, as a resource pool, and as a hotbed of social and governmental change driven by indigenous claims. Unfortunately it is also receiving significant attention internationally because of its role as a possible sink for global transport of contaminants produced by industry and used in a wide range of agricultural and industrial applications. Regional concerns about contamination include identification of sources of production within and beyond the Arctic Region, transport and deposition of a wide range of contaminants by the atmospheric, oceanic and riverine delivery systems, and the expression of ecological effects. Transcending all of these scientific aspects of this issue are the strongly held concerns at the local level where what is at stake is the future of a sustainable way of life with ancient roots based on harvesting of renewable resources. The North Atlantic Region has already seen the consequences of many of the development pressures which will be brought to bear on the Arctic, such as off-shore oil production. Increased understanding of environmental as well as economic consequences of irreversible development choices is bound to be beneficial to the decision-making process. Finally as the Arctic contaminants issue has shown, the framework used for making development choices everywhere must be broadened to consider the long term global consequences of those decisions.