Sustainable Development of the Arctic?

The chapter adopts an Earth Systems Dynamics perspective and argues that, from such a perspective, the “sustainable development of the Arctic” is illusionary. The by-now-global Arctic is in fact a case in point of unsustainable development, unsustainable for the Arctic and unsustainable for the planet. Global warming affects the poles and the Arctic disproportionately to the point that the rapid warming of the Arctic may well lead to tipping points of the Earth System. This Earth System Dynamics perspective is furthermore combined with an analysis of the dynamics of development, especially with an analysis of development’s key actors and institutions. The chapter concludes that the main actors in the Arctic - namely nation-states and state-owned enterprises - are unlikely to refrain from extracting resources from the Arctic and may well go to war over them. This is an institutional dynamic that will ultimately impede a realistic understanding of the detrimental effects of development on the Earth’s life-sustaining biosphere. Could it be that the concept of “sustainable development of the Arctic” serves other purposes?.