Fifth Generation

I guess that few thought that a result of Global Warming would be the development and settlement of the Arctic and the opening of the Northwest Passage. It should not be surprising, however. During the last period of Global Warming, Greenland really was green and the Vikings set up permanent settlements and villages.

Now again people are starting settlements in very northern places. The most Northern settlement is the drifting ice camp set up by the Russian Federation called Barneo. Because of the shift in the ice the camp must be set up new every year. In the year 2007, it was not set up. The website to go to get information is at polus.org. The world’s most northern permanent settlement is Alert, Nunavut, Canada where you can also find the world’s most Northern post office. There are only 5 permanent residents. Stephen Harper recently visited there.

The most northern town is Longyearbyen, Norway, a town of over 1,000 named for an American John Longyear who owned a coal mining company. The world’s most northern populated settlement is Ny-Alesund, Norway with 30 residents. There is a hotel in Ny-Alesund called the North Pole Hotel.

Grise Fiord, Canada, is the most Northern civilian settlement in North America. It was founded by the Canadian government in 1953. Here is a quote from Wikipeida, “The settlement was created by the Canadian government in the year 1953 to assert sovereignty in the area. Inuit families from northern Quebec were relocated and promised homes and game to hunt, but the relocated people discovered no buildings and very little familiar wildlife. They also had to endure weeks of daytime darkness in the winter and sunlight in the nights during summers, unlike northern Quebec.”

Here is the Grise Fiord website, grisefiord.ca

The North Pole was previously ignored, but with our current technology and warmer temperatures, the Arctic is now gaining a lot of attention of the news and of capitalists just like it did the Vikings over 1000 years earlier.

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Another interesting map that shows the North Pole as part if Canada!!

(from etourist.ca)

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We all have received that strange email in which someone from Nigeria wants to deposit millions of dollars for them in your bank account because they are in political trouble. Well, this one is probably the most creative spam letter I have ever received. Did any of you get this one?

“Dear Friend,

I am Marina Litvinenko, the wife of Late Alexander Litvinenko, who
suddenly fell ill and was hospitalized and died three weeks later,
becoming a rare victim of lethal polonium-210 radiation poisoning. This
mail may be coming to you as a surprise or an article but it is very real.
I will want you as the receiver to read through it and think very well if
you can help or render us any assistance. My late husband Alexander
Litvinenko

Presently life has not been easy or safe for my children and I, my
traveling documents have been seized by the government and they restricted
me and my children to have access to my late husband’s funds. I just found
out that my late husband deposited the sum of twenty Million dollars
$20,000,000 in my name (Marina Litvinenko) with a diplomatic security
company in the EU. Now I want to start a new life with the money and I
want this money invested outside Russia.

What I am asking you is to assist me in receiving the money on my behalf.
You will have to represent me in receiving the money with the security
company.

Please indicate your interest and willing to assist my in receiving the
money and possibly investment our share by proving the following
Your full names,
Contact info,
Fax and Telephone numbers
This will enable me forward your information to the security company as
the new beneficiary of the funds on my family’s behalf. We will discuss
your compensation in our subsequent correspondence.

I would want us to be in partnership in any good business you may suggest
in your country as soon as the money is released. Please understand my
plight and handle this transaction with maturity and sincerity.

Best Regards,
Marina Litvinenko”

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I wrote in a post earlier about the world’s fertility rates and how the most developed nations are not having children, but those in the poorest are having too many. Also, developed countries are not producing enough children to keep their population stable. Instead they are dying off. This is not propaganda. You can read statistics from the UN. Usually people bring up fertility rates only to show how the poorest and least developed are having too many children. Now people are noticing the low fertility rates of those countries who are European and secular.

The countries who are not producing are Hong Kong (1.0 total fertility rate), Russia (1.1), Latvia (1.1), Slovenia (1.1), Bulgaria (1.1), Italy (1.2), and Spain (1.2).

On the chart I linked to above from Human Development Reports it shows the birth rate of 1970-1975 and 2000-2005. These were the most interesting to me.
Mongolia 7.3 to 2.4
Uzbekistan 6.3 to 2.4
South Korea 4.3 to 1.4

I lived in South Korea and was in a relationship with a Korean. Most people my age in Korea had two or three siblings but either had no children or only one child. Two, if the first was a girl. I have heard the reasons are because Korean men have mandatory military service for two years. Also, housing is very expensive in Korea. People marry late and have that one DARLING son to keep the grandparents happy. What is strange is that in Korea most women I knew were housewives anyways and did not work, so that one son was REALLY spoiled. Every Mongolia girl I have met does not want children, even those who are living in America. They just want to go to school for years and years and work in a career and then maybe at 35 if they are lucky finally have a child. Sounds like a lot of American women.

Uzbekistan is different. Most of the Uzbekis get married to a bride their parents choose, quickly have a baby within a year, and then not have anymore for a long long time. This is because the financial and political situation is so bad there.

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I have no idea why I am so interested in the North Pole. I just find it a fascinating result of our earth’s current warmer temperatures. The melting of the North Pole has opened it up for the exploration of resources, mainly oil. We all know that Russia has been fighting to claim the North Pole as its own, even argueing their claim before the UN. Canada smartly is fighting back by opening up bases and sending their president for a three day visit. They are also claiming a small atoll from the Danes called Hans Island.

Today, the Danes have entered the fight for the treasure trove of North Pole claiming the Lomonosov Ridge as their own and not Russia’s. They are also leading an expedition to the North Pole.

The article about the Danish expedition came from the National Post, a Canadian website. On this page there is a picture from Google Maps which says the North Pole is part of Nunavut, the sparsely populated northern territory of Canada. I had to check this out to make sure that the picture was not a spoof. I put the North Pole into Google Maps and sure enough it says:

North Magnetic Pole
Nunavut, Canada

Well, we can’t argue with Google maps can we? Try it yourself!

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