02/04/2013 - 15:40  The Arctic as a bridge  Jayantha Dhanapala
Jayantha Dhanapala  Dhanapala is a member of the Bulletin's
Board of Sponsors and president of the Pugwash Conferences on
Science...   No country owns the North Pole or the expanse of
the Arctic Ocean surrounding it. The Arctic region has a
population of about 4 million, including more than 30 distinct
groups of indigenous people using dozens of languages; they have
lived there for more than 10,000 years. The area also has a
unique and diverse ecosystem that includes fish, marine mammals,
birds, land animals, and a thriving web of bacteria, viruses,
algae, worms, and crustaceans that live in sea ice. The natural
resources are vast and largely untapped. The US Geological
Survey has estimated that 22 percent of the world's undiscovered
energy resources lie in the Arctic zone -- especially in the
submerged plateau, between the Bering Sea and the Chukchi Sea
known as the Chukchi Cap.  The Arctic has been vital to
humanity's development, and history h