Download or read book Coast Guard Polar Icebreaker Modernization written by Ronald O'Rourke and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2010-03 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of the Coast Guard¿s (CG) 3 polar icebreakers, 2 ¿ Polar Star and Polar Sea ¿ have exceeded their intended 30-year service lives. Potential policy issues for Congress regarding CG polar icebreaker modernization include: the numbers and capabilities of polar icebreakers the CG will need in the future; whether to provide these icebreakers through construction of new ships or service life extensions of Polar Start and/or Polar Sea; whether new ships should be funded entirely in the Coast Guard budget, or partly or entirely in some other part of the fed. budget; and whether the Polar Star should be repaired and placed back into service. Charts and tables.
Download or read book Coast Guard Polar Icebreaker Modernization written by Ronald O'Rourke and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 67 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Coast Guard polar icebreakers perform a variety of missions supporting U.S. interests in polar regions. The Coast Guard's two heavy polar icebreakers-Polar Star and Polar Sea-have exceeded their intended 30-year service lives. The Polar Star is not operational and has been in caretaker status since July 1, 2006. Congress in FY2009 and FY2010 provided funding to repair Polar Star and return it to service for 7 to 10 years; the Coast Guard expects the reactivation project to be completed in 2013. On June 25, 2010, the Coast Guard announced that Polar Sea had suffered an unexpected engine casualty and consequently will likely be unavailable for operation until at least January 2011. The United States, which has various interests in the polar regions, currently has no operational heavy polar icebreakers. The Coast Guard's third polar icebreaker-Healy-entered service in 2000. Compared to Polar Star and Polar Sea, Healy has less icebreaking capability (it is considered a medium polar icebreaker), but more capability for supporting scientific research. The ship is used primarily for supporting scientific research in the Arctic.
Download or read book Coast Guard Polar Icebreaker Modernization Background Issues and Options for Congress written by and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 30 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of the Coast Guard's three polar icebreakers, two Polar Star and Polar Sea have exceeded their intended 30-year service lives. The Polar Star is not operational and has been caretaker status since July 1, 2006. A 2007 report from the National Research Council (NRC) on the U.S. polar icebreaking fleet states that U.S. [polar] icebreaking capability is now at risk of being unable to support national interests in the north and the south. On July 16, 2008, Admiral Thad Allen, the Commandant of the Coast Guard, testified that: Today, our nation is at a crossroads with Coast Guard domestic and international icebreaking capabilities. We have important decisions to make. And I believe we must address our icebreaking needs now ... The Administration is conducting an interagency Arctic policy review, and the Coast Guard is conducting studies on replacements for Polar Star and Polar Sea. Under the Coast Guard s current schedule, the first replacement polar icebreaker might enter service in 8 to 10 years. The Coast Guard estimated in February 2008 that new replacement ships might cost $800 million to $925 million each in 2008 dollars, and that the alternative of extending the service lives of Polar Sea and Polar Star for 25 years might cost about $400 million per ship.
Download or read book Coast Guard Polar Icebreaker Modernization written by Ronald O'Rourke and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-04-03 with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The operational U.S. polar icebreaking fleet currently consists of one heavy polar icebreaker, Polar Star, and one medium polar icebreaker, Healy. In addition to Polar Star, the Coast Guard has a second heavy polar icebreaker, Polar Sea. This ship suffered an engine casualty in June 2010 and has been non-operational since then. Polar Star and Polar Sea entered service in 1976 and 1978, respectively, and are now well beyond their originally intended 30-year service lives. Coast Guard polar icebreakers perform a variety of missions supporting U.S. interests in polar regions. A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Mission Need Statement (MNS) approved in June 2013 states that "current requirements and future projections ... indicate the Coast Guard will need to expand its icebreaking capacity, potentially requiring a fleet of up to six icebreakers (3 heavy and 3 medium) to adequately meet mission demands in the high latitudes...." The current condition of the U.S. polar icebreaker fleet, the DHS MNS, and concerns among some observers about whether the United States is adequately investing in capabilities to carry out its responsibilities and defend its interests in the Arctic, have focused policymaker attention on the question of whether and when to acquire one or more new heavy polar icebreakers as replacements for Polar Star and Polar Sea. On September 1, 2015, the White House issued a fact sheet indicating that the Administration wants to begin building a new polar icebreaker in FY2020, and that the Administration will also "begin planning for construction of additional icebreakers" beyond the one that the Administration proposes to begin building in FY2020. On October 26, 2016, the Coast Guard released a request for information (RFI) to receive industry feedback on its notional polar icebreaker acquisition approach and schedule. The summary of the RFI, dated October 25, 2016, presents a notional schedule for acquiring three heavy polar icebreakers under which procurement of long leadtime materials (LLTM) for the three ships would start in the fourth quarter of FY2019, the second quarter of FY2021, and the second quarter of FY2022, respectively, and the ships would be delivered in the fourth quarter of FY2023, the second quarter of FY2025, and the second quarter of FY2026, respectively. (Each ship would be commissioned into service a few weeks or months after it is delivered.)
Download or read book Coast Guard Polar Icebreaker Modernization written by O'Rourke and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2015-01-03 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report provides background information and issues for Congress on the sustainment and modernization of the Coast Guard's polar icebreaker fleet, which performs a variety of missions supporting U.S. interests in polar regions. The Coast Guard's proposed FY2015 budget requests $6 million to continue initial acquisition activities for a new polar icebreaker. The issue for Congress is whether to approve, reject, or modify Coast Guard plans for sustaining and modernizing its polar icebreaking fleet. Congressional decisions on this issue could affect Coast Guard funding requirements, the Coast Guard's ability to perform its polar missions, and the U.S. shipbuilding industrial base.
Download or read book Coast Guard Arctic Implementation Capabilities written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Polar Icebreakers in a Changing World written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2007-03-14 with total page 135 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States has enduring national and strategic interests in the polar regions, including citizens living above the Arctic circle and three year-round scientific stations in the Antarctic. Polar icebreaking ships are needed to access both regions. Over the past several decades, the U.S. government has supported a fleet of four icebreakersâ€"three multi-mission U.S. Coast Guard ships (the POLAR SEA, POLAR STAR, and HEALY) and the National Science Foundation's PALMER, which is dedicated solely to scientific research. Today, the POLAR STAR and the POLAR SEA are at the end of their service lives, and a lack of funds and no plans for an extension of the program has put U.S. icebreaking capability at risk. This report concludes that the United States should continue to support its interests in the Arctic and Antarctic for multiple missions, including maintaining leadership in polar science. The report recommends that the United States immediately program, budget, design, and construct two new polar icebreakers to be operated by the U.S. Coast Guard. The POLAR SEA should remain mission capable and the POLAR STAR should remain available for reactivation until the new polar icebreakers enter service. The U.S. Coast Guard should be provided sufficient operations and maintenance budget to support an increased, regular, and influential presence in the Arctic, with support from other agencies. The report also calls for a Presidential Decision Directive to clearly align agency responsibilities and budgetary authorities.
Download or read book Coast Guard Icebreaking written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Coast Guard Readiness written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Arctic Economics in the 21st Century written by Heather A. Conley and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2013-08-15 with total page 71 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Arctic Economics in the 21st Century explores the key economic dynamics at play in the rapidly changing Arctic region. This report evaluates both the economic benefits of an increasingly open Arctic region and the costs of exploring the riches of the American Arctic. It frames an economic strategy built upon six critical economic components: mineral resources, oil and gas development, shipping, fisheries, tourism, and finally, the regional infrastructure required to support and sustain the first five components. The report analyzes the increasingly prominent role of the private sector in Arctic development and its interplay with the potentially diminished traditional role of governments in the region.
Download or read book Building a 21st century Infrastructure for America written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Perils of Plenty written by Jonathan N. Markowitz and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Among scholars who focus on the politics of natural resources, conventional wisdom asserts that resource-scarce states have the strongest interest in securing control over resources. Counterintuitively, however, in Perils of Plenty, Jonathan N. Markowitz finds that the opposite is true. In actuality, what states make influences what they want to take. Specifically, Markowitz argues that the more economically dependent states are on resource extraction rents for income, the stronger their preferences will be to secure control over resources. He tests the theory with a set of case studies that analyze how states reacted to the 2007 exogenous climate shock that exposed energy resources in the Arctic. Given the dangerous potential for conflict escalation in the Middle East and the South China Sea and the continued shrinkage of the polar ice cap, this book speaks to a genuinely important development in world politics that will have implications for understanding the political effects of climate change for many years to come.
Download or read book Environmental Security in the Arctic Ocean written by Paul Arthur Berkman and published by Springer. This book was released on 2012-11-29 with total page 478 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This seminal book results from a NATO Advanced Research Workshop at the University of Cambridge with Russian co-directorship, enabling the first formal dialogue between NATO and Russia about security issues in the Arctic Ocean. Involving interdisciplinary participation with experts from 17 nations, including all of the Arctic states, this workshop itself reflects progress in Arctic cooperation and collaboration. Interests now are awakening globally to take advantage of extensive energy, shipping, fishing and tourism opportunities in the Arctic Ocean as it is being transformed from a permanent sea-ice cap to a seasonally ice-free sea. This environmental state-change is introducing inherent risks of political, economic and cultural instabilities that are centralized among the Arctic states and indigenous peoples with repercussions globally. Responding with urgency, environmental security is presented as an "integrated approach for assessing and responding to the risks as well as the opportunities generated by an environmental state-change." In this book – diverse perspectives on environmental security in the Arctic Ocean are shared in chapters from high-level diplomats, parliamentarians and government officials of Arctic and non-Arctic states; leaders of Arctic indigenous peoples organizations; international law advisors from Arctic states as well as the United Nations; directors of inter-governmental organizations and non-governmental organizations; managers of multi-national corporations; political scientists, historians and economists; along with Earth system scientists and oceanographers. Building on the “common arctic issues” of “sustainable development and environmental protection” established by the Arctic Council – environmental security offers an holistic approach to assess opportunities and risks as well as develop infrastructure responses with law of the sea as the key “international legal framework” to “promote the peaceful uses” of the Arctic Ocean. With vision for future generations, environmental security is a path to balance national interests and common interests in the Arctic Ocean for the lasting benefit of all.
Download or read book Antarctica written by Doaa Abdel-Motaal and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2016-09-28 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The thawing Antarctic continent offers living space and marine and mineral resources that were previously inaccessible. This book discusses how revisiting the Antarctic Treaty System and dividing up the continent preemptively could spare the world serious conflict. The Antarctic Treaty and related agreements—collectively known as the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS)—regulate the seventh continent, which is the only continent without a native human population. The main treaty within the ATS came into force in 1961 and suspended all territorial claims in Antarctica. The Antarctic Environmental Protocol followed in 1998 and prohibited any minerals exploitation in the continent. With this prohibition up for review in 2048, this book asks whether the Antarctic Treaty can continue to protect Antarctica. Doaa Abdel-Motaal—an expert on environmental issues who has traveled through the Arctic and Antarctic—explains that the international community must urgently turn its attention to examining how to divide up the thawing continent in a peaceful manner. She discusses why the Antarctic Treaty is unlikely to be an adequate measure in the face of international competition for invaluable resources in the 21st century. She argues that factors such as global warming, the growth in climate refugees that the world is about to witness, and the increasingly critical quest for energy resources will make the Antarctic continent a highly sought-after objective. Readers will come to appreciate that what has likely protected Antarctica so far was not the Antarctic Treaty but the continent's harsh climate and isolation. With Antarctica potentially becoming habitable only a few decades from now, revisiting the Antarctic Treaty in favor of an orderly division of the continent is likely to be the best plan for avoiding costly conflict.
Download or read book Changes in the Arctic written by Ronald O'Rourke and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2011-02 with total page 65 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The diminishment of Arctic sea ice has led to increased human activities in the Arctic, and has heightened concerns about the region¿s future. Contents of this report: (1) Intro.; (2) Background: Definitions of the Arctic: Arctic Circle Definition and Resulting Arctic Countries; (3) Issues for Congress: Climate Change and Loss of Arctic Sea Ice; Territorial Claims and Sovereignty Issues; Commercial Sea Transport.; Regulation of Arctic Shipping; Oil, Gas, and Mineral Exploration:Extent of the Continental Margin; Minerals; Environ. and Economics; Oil Pollution and Pollution Response; Response and Cleanup Challenges in the Arctic Region; Fisheries; Indigenous People; Effects of Climate Change; U.S. Military Forces. Illus. This is a print on demand report.
Download or read book Canada and the Changing Arctic written by Franklyn Griffiths and published by Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press. This book was released on 2011-11-01 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Global warming has had a dramatic impact on the Arctic environment, including the ice melt that has opened previously ice-covered waterways. State and non-state actors who look to the region and its resources with varied agendas have started to pay attention. Do new geopolitical dynamics point to a competitive and inherently conflictual “race for resources”? Or will the Arctic become a region governed by mutual benefit, international law, and the achievement of a widening array of cooperative arrangements among interested states and Indigenous peoples? As an Arctic nation Canada is not immune to the consequences of these transformations. In Canada and the Changing Arctic: Sovereignty, Security, and Stewardship, the authors, all leading commentators on Arctic affairs, grapple with fundamental questions about how Canada should craft a responsible and effective Northern strategy. They outline diverse paths to achieving sovereignty, security, and stewardship in Canada’s Arctic and in the broader circumpolar world. The changing Arctic region presents Canadians with daunting challenges and tremendous opportunities. This book will inspire continued debate on what Canada must do to protect its interests, project its values, and play a leadership role in the twenty-first-century Arctic. Forewords by Senator Hugh Segal and former Minister of Foreign Affairs and of National Defence Bill Graham.
Download or read book Future Science Opportunities in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2011-11-28 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Antarctica and the surrounding Southern Ocean remains one of the world's last frontiers. Covering nearly 14 million km² (an area approximately 1.4 times the size of the United States), Antarctica is the coldest, driest, highest, and windiest continent on Earth. While it is challenging to live and work in this extreme environment, this region offers many opportunities for scientific research. Ever since the first humans set foot on Antarctica a little more than a century ago, the discoveries made there have advanced our scientific knowledge of the region, the world, and the Universe-but there is still much more to learn. However, conducting scientific research in the harsh environmental conditions of Antarctica is profoundly challenging. Substantial resources are needed to establish and maintain the infrastructure needed to provide heat, light, transportation, and drinking water, while at the same time minimizing pollution of the environment and ensuring the safety of researchers. Future Science Opportunities in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean suggests actions for the United States to achieve success for the next generation of Antarctic and Southern Ocean science. The report highlights important areas of research by encapsulating each into a single, overarching question. The questions fall into two broad themes: (1) those related to global change, and (2) those related to fundamental discoveries. In addition, the report identified key science questions that will drive research in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean in coming decades, and highlighted opportunities to be leveraged to sustain and improve the U.S. research efforts in the region.
