| Summary/Abstract |
Often we hear about the Arctic as a place buffeted by international and regional pressures — pollutants from agriculture, planetary climate impacts, and rising industrial pressures caused by globalized demand. But the Arctic is also a place of bright hope. It is a place where humankind has a unique opportunity to get development right. Getting it right means instead of viewing the region as a resource frontier to be plundered, we view it as place where sustainability can be more than an afterthought, a place where knowledge-based decisions can safeguard Arctic ecosystems for the benefit of Arctic peoples and humanity as a whole. Our biggest challenge in the Arctic is that we may intervene in Arctic systems on an industrial scale before really understanding the workings and functions of those systems, and so unleash a cascade of impacts that will affect us on a local and global scale. These potential industrial impacts would be added to those already disrupting Arctic systems as a consequence of climate change.
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