The introduction of motorised vehicles changed life in the Arctic region of Finnish Lapland.
The BP-Rosneft deal is a partnership to explore the Arctic region for possible reserves of oil.
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Icelanders are also keen to co-operate with Russia, Canada, and Norway in the Barents Sea and in the Arctic region.
The remaining make-up of newly elected Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg's government further hints at the strategic importance he places on the future of the Arctic region and the Barents Sea.
Sleds have been used as transport in the Arctic region for thousands of years and old sleds and leather reins have even been found in bogs, estimated to be more than 3, 000 years old.
While the existence of frozen natural gas deposits -- especially in the Arctic region -- has been known for years, the USGS study is the first estimate of recoverable natural gas hydrates with current technology.
This has allowed scientists to retrieve information about the Arctic Ocean region's gravity field, its surface circulation, and the thickness of its sea-ice cover.
Although there is huge interest from oil and gas firms to exploit the Arctic, developments in the region are in fact moving very slowly - partly as some Arctic nations insist on tight standards.
For now, the only inter-governmental body with a say over the region is the Arctic Council: its mandate is narrowly environmental.
The EU funded Drifting Apart project, which seeks to strengthen our understanding of the interconnected geological heritage of the Northern Periphery and Arctic region launched its new website this month.
The project involves seven partners including three UK Global Geoparks and will support the development of the Global Geoparks Network of geoheritage destinations in the Northern Periphery and Arctic Region.
The UK has observer status on the Arctic Council, comprising the states that fringe the region.
The best hope is that Arctic governments will continue to develop the region as carefully and harmoniously as they have been doing in recent years.
In the coming months, we'll explore that region, the rapidly changing arctic.
Today we flew to Fairbanks and went to the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, for presentations on the diversity of the Arctic Ocean and how climate change is impacting the region.
Despite excited predictions of a dangerous scramble for Arctic resources, the region's sovereignty is fairly clearly defined.
Russia, the United States, Denmark, Greenland, Canada and Norway, which border the Arctic, and China are also scrambling to control the region and access to the commercial ventures there.
Since the 1950s, submarines have measured the thickness of Arctic ice in specific places but never for the entire region.
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The 1, 700km Winnipeg-Churchill line heads north from the Manitoba capital, easing through lake-studded woodland tundra towards the remote, sub-arctic northern region.
Others foresee conflict between Arctic countries scrambling for the region's resources.
Martin Sommerkorn from the WWF International Arctic Program believes that the changes in sea-ice cover in the region are likely to increase global temperatures further.
Not to be confused with either the Strategic Petroleum Reserve or the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), the desolate 23 million acre NPRA region was first established as an oil reserve for the U.S. Navy in 1923.
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The Inuit represent less than half the Arctic's indigenous people, who in turn account for only 10% of the region's population.
Clinton took part in a meeting of the Arctic Council whose eight members have territory in that region.
Russia, which owns half the Arctic coastline and the lion's share of the region's resources, is also reluctant.
Security expert John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, thinks power in the Arctic may lie with whoever has the best physical access to this forbidding region.
The Arctic remains one of the few unexplored regions of the world and the region above Alaska and western Canada is believed to be oil rich.
Their survey of the region set in motion the effort to protect what is now the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
Unlike Antarctica, which is protected by an international agreement, numerous countries lay claim to parts of the Arctic, which makes it hard to pin down exactly how many tourists visit the region each summer, when the sun does not set below the horizon and the ice melts enough to allow expedition ships passage to the remote wilderness.
Even if it meant nothing for sea levels, though, a melting Arctic (see video-graphic) still means a lot for the ecology of the region.
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