The future of sustainable polar ship-based tourism

Over the last couple of decades, polar tourism has significantly grown in the number of visitors and diversified in terms of the tourism activities offered. The COVID-19 pandemic brought polar tourism to a halt and has prompted researchers, operators and policy-makers alike to reflect on how Arctic and Antarctic tourism have developed, how they are being managed and governed and, importantly, how tourism operators influence polar socio-ecological systems. Given the dominance of ship-based tourism over other types of tourism in the Polar Regions, we discuss the cornerstones of how polar ship-based tourism has developed over the last 50 years and explore the relevant international and regional governance regimes in this article. We identify which positive and negative biophysical, socio-cultural and economic impacts arising from polar tourism have been identified by researchers. It is difficult, if not impossible, to disentangle impacts caused by tourism alone from those that result from the interactions of multiple pressures at all levels (local, regional and global), and more research is needed to develop reliable and effective indicators to monitor tourism impacts. In addition, a better understanding is needed about the role tourist experiences might play in potentially encouraging long-term positive behavioural changes among visitors to the Polar Regions. The COVID-19 pandemic has provided an important opportunity to review polar tourism development and management, and to ask whether an emphasis should be placed on ‘degrowth' of the sector in the future.

Surveillance of the Second Wave of COVID-19 in Europe: Longitudinal Trend Analyses.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted Europe, resulting in a high caseload and deaths that varied by country. The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has breached the borders of Europe. Public health surveillance is necessary to inform policy and guide leaders. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to provide advanced surveillance metrics for COVID-19 transmission that account for weekly shifts in the pandemic, speed, acceleration, jerk, and persistence, to better understand countries at risk for explosive growth and those that are managing the pandemic effectively. METHODS: We performed a longitudinal trend analysis and extracted 62 days of COVID-19 data from public health registries. We used an empirical difference equation to measure the daily number of cases in Europe as a function of the prior number of cases, the level of testing, and weekly shift variables based on a dynamic panel model that was estimated using the generalized method of moments approach by implementing the Arellano-Bond estimator in R. RESULTS: New COVID-19 cases slightly decreased from 158,741 (week 1, January 4-10, 2021) to 152,064 (week 2, January 11-17, 2021), and cumulative cases increased from 22,507,271 (week 1) to 23,890,761 (week 2), with a weekly increase of 1,383,490 between January 10 and January 17. France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom had the largest 7-day moving averages for new cases during week 1. During week 2, the 7-day moving average for France and Spain increased. From week 1 to week 2, the speed decreased (37.72 to 33.02 per 100,000), acceleration decreased (0.39 to -0.16 per 100,000), and jerk increased (-1.30 to 1.37 per 100,000). CONCLUSIONS: The United Kingdom, Spain, and Portugal, in particular, are at risk for a rapid expansion in COVID-19 transmission. An examination of the European region suggests that there was a decrease in the COVID-19 caseload between January 4 and January 17, 2021. Unfortunately, the rates of jerk, which were negative for Europe at the beginning of the month, reversed course and became positive, despite decreases in speed and acceleration. Finally, the 7-day persistence rate was higher during week 2 than during week 1. These measures indicate that the second wave of the pandemic may be subsiding, but some countries remain at risk for new outbreaks and increased transmission in the absence of rapid policy responses.

Tourism worlding: Collective becoming in East Greenland

In this article, we explore tourism development as an ongoing becoming-with and in the world. We draw on Haraway’s concept of worlding to describe the coming together of tourism not as a solitary or industry-related endeavour, but as entangled. We introduce the analytical concepts of frictions, companions and string figures to exemplify and discuss what this looks like when stepping closer to the tinkering with tourism. The article illustrates and discusses ways to re-conceptualise tourism development not as a simple solution to local problem, but as world-making in tension. We abstain from identifying “good” tourism and claims of how to pursue ways to “fix” tourism, instead tending to how tourism actors imagine and tinker with and around tourism towards more livable futures in a turbulent terrain.

The Political Response to the COVID-19 Crisis in Italy: A First Assessment for the National Food System

The objective of this paper is to explore the policies that have been implemented and planned in relation to the impacts that the COVID-19 health crisis has had on the Italian food system. This is an evaluation exercise useful to understand what the directions imprinted on the food system will be in relation to some frameworks of particular importance at the international level, such as the 2030 Agenda, the Farm to Fork Strategy, the Biodiversity Strategy, the UN Food Summit, and the agroecological perspective. The article is divided into multiple sections. In paragraph 1.1 and 1.2, the shocks generated by COVID-19 in the global context and in the Italian national context are examined. In both, attention is drawn to changes in GDP, employment, poverty, and the food system. In paragraph 3, the methodological approach, based on the DPSIR model, is explained, as well as the materials used for the drafting of the work. In paragraph 4, all of the components (Driving Forces, Pressures, States, Impacts) of the DPSIR model are analyzed. In paragraph 5, attention is focused on all policy responses implemented during COVID-19, both on the Italian and European side. In paragraph 6, a detailed analysis of the Italian responses is made in order to fully understand the degree of influence on the Italian economy and food system. The analysis carried out, therefore, highlights the socioeconomic threats faced by the Italian government and the main measures adopted to counter them. Through a critical analysis of policies, it was possible to identify their criticalities and propose possible integrations, starting from the concept of “syndemia”. This concept was introduced in the 1990s by Merril Singer, and in this paper, it plays an important role because it takes into account the negative effects of the pandemic at the economic, health, and social levels and the importance of the sustainability of the food chain. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Moving Through Crisis Mode

According to Stanley, when faced with major disruption, processes come second. According to Mesaglio, getting teams together to brainstorm additional ideas creates lasting cohesion. The event will provide insight on: * Individual value at any level of an organization. * Keys to leading with acceptance and adoption. * Methods of inclusivity and consideration to expand your scope of thinking. * Techniques to adapt to change-anticipated or not.

The Arctic Highlights Our Failure to Act in a Rapidly Changing World

In this perspective on the future of the Arctic, we explore actions taken to mitigate warming and adapt to change since the Paris agreement on the temperature threshold that should not be exceeded in order to avoid dangerous interference with the climate system. Although 5 years may seem too short a time for implementation of major interventions, it actually is a considerable time span given the urgency at which we must act if we want to avoid crossing the 1.5 to <2 °C global warming threshold. Actions required include co-production of research exploring possible futures;supporting Indigenous rights holders’ and stakeholders’ discourse on desired futures;monitoring Arctic change;funding strategic, regional adaptation;and, deep decarbonization through transformation of the energy system coupled with negative carbon emissions. We are now in the decisive decade concerning the future we leave behind for the next generations. The Arctic’s future depends on global action, and in turn, the Arctic plays a critical role in the global future.

The loss of the world's frozen places

By Alexandra Witze In the summer of 1948, a small group of men in Juneau, Alaska, packed boots, axes, ropes and camping gear, and set off into the ice and snow that sprawls just north of the city. Big polar glaciers, including Thwaites Glacier, are central to how rapidly the West Antarctic ice sheet is melting into the ocean, raising sea levels. Fox moves into this space from his background as a ski writer (a previous book was about skiing and climate change).

Island Geographies of Separation and Cohesion: The Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic and the Geopolitics of Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland).

Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland) is an Arctic highly autonomous subnational island jurisdiction (SNIJ) of Denmark, its former coloniser. The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic of 2020 has influenced both Kalaallit Nunaat's relations with the outside world and relations between people and places within the territory. The Kalaallit Nunaat government's response to the pandemic, including both internal and external travel bans and restrictions on movement, has focused on eradicating the disease from the territory. This strategy, however, is challenged both by the SNIJ's economic reliance on Denmark and by the Danish government's own strategy of mitigating the disease. This paper explores the ways in which the coronavirus pandemic has altered how the people of Kalaallit Nunaat interact with the people of Denmark and with one another, ultimately shedding light on the relationship between islands, disease, and geopolitics more generally.