This essay explores the Swedish state?s geopolitical view and creation, of the spatial spaces in and of the Arctic. With a critical geopolitical framework, a discourse analysis is conducted on the Swedish strategy for the arctic region, with the ambition to unfold the underlining spatial spaces, actors and dramas that this discourse creates. The result of this analysis shows that Sweden creates three different Arctic spaces within its geopolitical discourse; a Swedish Arctic, a Nearby Arctic and a Regional Arctic. This has major political consequences, which will be illuminated in the essay.

The Arctic region is rich in natural resources such as oil, gas, minerals and fish. Climate change causes the Arctic ice melt, making resource extraction possible as well as opening up new transport routes through the Northwest Passage and the Northeast Passage. This has led to competition and cross-border strife among the Arctic States. The two largest states in the Arctic are Russia and Canada, which are also members of the Arctic Council. Russia and Canada are at the moment involved in several disputes regarding the Arctic territory where the ownership of the North Pole is one example.

The Arctic region has not been a topic of discussion or a reason for a conflict in the past, but with the development of environmental issues which has resulted in melting of the ice, so has the interest for the region developed. This has resulted in a conflict over the area, with five countries as main actors. This paper investigates the five main actors? goals with increased influence in the area, using the thoughts of Rational Actor Model, with states as utility-maximizing actors and foreign policy as the expression of national interest. Furthermore the paper investigates the means of getting to the goal, what kind of tools they use.The paper shows that all of the countries are interested in the economically benefits that are buried under the melting ice and the short cuts in sea routes that will be a possibility to use ones the ice melt more.

The global climate change affects the Arctic region the most. The decrease in arcticsea ice is one of the reasons why, it accelerates the warm-up of the region.To understand the changes in the Arctic climate, knowledge about what affects thechanges in the sea ice is necessary. One of these processes could be the relationbetween the extent of the sea ice and the concentration of sea salt aerosols in thearea.This work studies how a variation in the arctic sea ice extent affects theconcentration of sea salt aerosols at Barrow, Alaska. To do this aerosoldata, icedataand winddata has been analyzed over the years 1998-2007. The results shows that aseasonally variation in the sea ice extent affects large aerosols (1-10 ?m) whilesmaller aerosols (<1 ?m) doesn?t seem to be affected as much..

This study is called When the ice of the Arctic melts is the world defrosting? and written by Rebecca Fröling.The purpose of the study is to investigate how the concept ?security? is used in the Swedish arctic strategy and why the concept is described in that way. The debate of the concept ?security? has been going on for years, but the debate is still present today. What we put in to the concept is operative for how we regard and discuss security and security politics.To analyze the strategy I used two theories, one with a traditional approach and one with a critical approach to security: Realism and Copenhagen School.The method that has been applied to the study is qualitative content analysis, to be able to analyze the text on the depth.

Tourism in the Arctic and Antarctic is increasing rapidly. In both Polar Regions, the cruise tourism is predominant. Several of the tour operators arrange trips under the banner of ecotourism, meaning that the trips should be ecologically sustainable. To ensure ecotourism standards there are different types of certifications; for cruise travels in the Arctic there is AECO (the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators) certification, and for travels to the Antarctic IAATO (the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators). Promoters of ecotourism argue that these trips are important because they create support for conservation work among tourists making them ?polar ambassadors?.

Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are ubiquitous in the environment today and they have been detected even in remote areas such as the Arctic. PFASs can be transported by the atmosphere and ocean currents but the transport mechanism is not fully understood. PFASs may be harmful to organisms due to their persistence in the environment, bio-accumulation potential and toxicity. Studies have shown that PFASs can cause adverse effects on the metabolism as well as the endocrine- and reproduction systems in organisms. In this study, PFASs were investigated in glaucous gull (Larus hyperboreus) (n=5) and black guillemot (Cepphus grylle) (n=4) from Svalbard.

This project is a literature study with the hypothesis that Arctic climate has a positive effect on the accumulation of metabolites in berries. Plant metabolites are often divided into primary and secondary metabolites. Primary metabolites such as proteins and nucleic acids are essential for cell function, while secondary metabolites are often non-essential, but have important functions regarding reproduction and survival. The berries mentioned in this project are from the families Ericaceae, Rosaceae, Elaeagnaceae och Grossulariaceae.The conclusion drawn from this literature study is that it is not obvious what favours accumulation of metabolites in berries. Other factors aside from climate affect the production of secondary metabolites, such as time of harvest, cultivars and ripeness.

With ever-increasing environmental problems in the world, I have with this thesis aimed at studying how the Inuit people of the Arctic organize themselves around the issue of environmental degradation. In focus for this thesis is the organization Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC), an NGO that focuses on saving and protecting the social and cultural rights of the Inuit people, along with the environment in the four arctic regions. This aboriginal population has a strong connection to the environment they dwell in, as the area serves as a source of income and nutrition as well as an historically important place for their culture.I will in this thesis primarily investigate the methods of operation amongst NGOs, as well as their ability to influence and interact with the UN. These are three concepts that I, as a hypothesis, considered to distinguish ICC from other NGOs. With help from three theories about NGOs, I conclude that certain central elements of ICC differ from the average NGO, making ICC a new kind of actor in global politics..

I ett samhälle där nyskapande teknik och goda kommunikationsmöjligheter gör marknader globala blir kvalitetsutveckling ett allt mer utbrett verktyg för företag att skapa sig konkurrensfördelar. Det har visat sig att stora summor pengar spenderas för att åtgärda fel och brister som uppstår på grund av bristande kvalitet. En nyligen genomförd opinionsmätning bland svenska företagsledare visar att dessa i genomsnitt bedömer dessa till närmare 25 procent av sina verksamheters omsättningar. Att kartlägga dessa så kallade kvalitetsbristkostnader kan således vara en guldgruva för verksamheter som kan förbättra sin lönsamhet utan att det sker på bekostnad av kvaliteten. Det här projektet har genomförts på Arctic Solar AB som i dagsläget har liten eller ingen kunskap över vilka kvalitetsbristkostnader som finns eller hur stor omfattning dessa har.

Assessment of impacts on nature and reindeer husbandry by the considered mountain road between Borgafjäll and Saxnäs- Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institutes method for assessment of damage to heritage assetsThere are plans regarding the building of a new road from Borgafjäll/Båtas to Saxnäs, and two road alternatives have been presented. The road has been localized to an area which is protected as a nature reserve and listed as a Nature 2000 area. This report aims to determine the effects on the Nature 2000 area and reindeer husbandry, and to be a source of knowledge for future environmental impact assessment in that project. In order to assess the impact on nature values and reindeer husbandry a method from the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI) has been used. A literature review has been made to prescribe the effects and consequences.

Syftet med studien är att studera hur ett kvalitativt turistiskt boende kan utformas utifrån ett upplevelseperspektiv. För att besvara studiens frågeställningar valde jag att utföra en kvalitativ undersökning i form av fem djupintervjuer. Tre av intervjuobjekten representerar turism och besöksnäringen i Sverige på tre olika nivåer - nationell, regional samt lokal. Detta för att få en bild av Sverige som destination samt en inblick i vad som händer på marknaden. De två övriga representerar hotellnäringen inom Swedish Lapland.

Environmental chemicals are transported to the Arctic through the air and oceans, once within the Arctic they spread through rivers, lakes and other watercourses. Polar bears and sledge dogs in-gest high concentrations of environmental chemicals since many of the chemicals are fat-soluble and their diet mainly consists of marine mammals. The aim of this study is to describe how environmental chemicals spread in nature, how they reach the polar bears, and finally how they affect the animals reproduction, with reproductive hormones and genitals in focus. The animals are exposed to a cocktail effect which complicates the assessment of the chemicals impact on the reproduction. Studies show that the genitals can decrease in size or become malformed, sexual maturation can be affected and the reproductive hormones can be disturbed.

Prescribed burning was commonly used for site preparation in Sweden to establish new forests until the 1960?s, when mechanical scarification was introduced. During recent decades the interest in prescribed burnings has increased again, mainly due to certifications of forestry stating that 5% of the regeneration areas should be burned on dry and mesic soils. The objective of the study was to evaluate actual influence of prescribed burning compared to other site preparation on stand stem density, growth parameters and tree damages for Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) after direct seeding and planting. The study also attempts to simulate growth until first thinning.

The climate changes and the global warming have a great impact on the Arctic environments. This partially depends on that the albedo is getting lower when snow and ice is melting and exposes more and more dark surfaces of the land and sea. This leads to a feedback effect; the melting accelerates because dark surfaces attract more sun radiation. Because of the heating the glaciers in Arctic retreat. The purpose of this report is to obtain an eventual change in elevation on the glacier Lomonosovfonna that is located on Svalbard by comparing elevation data collected by NASA and GPS data from 1996-2012.