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military activities especially in northern Russia have generated very large amounts of 

 environmental pollution -- both industrial wastes and radioactive materials -- with 

 apparently unprecedented negative effects on people and ecosystems. Second, the 

 continuing decline of military confrontation and concurrent rise of democratic 

 governance provide new opportunities for collaboration, particularly in science, on 

 issues of common concern. One of the more urgent issues demanding attention is 

 the potential movement of Russian pollutants to other countries as well as their 

 impacts on common resources in the world oceans. 



The Arctic has a vulnerable environment that is extremely sensitive to 

 perturbations. The delicate balance between its physical, chemical and ecological 

 components, governed by the very low rate of biogenesis and chemical turnover, 

 makes the Arctic an "early warning system" for global change, where the signatures of 

 climate change are expected to occur first. 



The Arctic is an active component of the global geosphere-biosphere system. 

 Atmosphere-ocean coupling in the Arctic is an important feedback mechanism in the 

 thermodynamic machine that controls the climate of our planet and atmospheric 

 processes in the Arctic play a crucial role in shaping the weather and climate of the 

 entire northern hemisphere. The Arctic Ocean is an essential component of the 

 circulation of the world's oceans and a regulator of the global climate. A dominant 

 world water mass, the bottom water in the Atlantic, is formed mainly from Arctic ocean 

 water; thermohaline circulation involving sea ice determines the temperature, oxygen, 

 carbon and nutrient content of this deep reservoir. Highly localized physical, chemical 

 and biological processes in the Arctic Ocean's upper layers play a aucial role in the 

 removal of cartxjn dioxide and other biogenic and man-made materials from the 

 atmosphere. 



In addition, the Arctic is a natural storage resen^oir for atmospheric and water 

 pollution. Industrial aerosols from lower latitudes in eastern Europe and the Soviet 



