Marzio G. Mian: "If it's over the Arctic, Russia could trigger a nuclear war."

The Arctic was once the end of the world, a place of legend and adventure. Today, it's a snapshot of the world order and its struggles. And one of the few journalists who has been documenting and reporting on it for some time is Marzio G. Mian. In his book White War. On the Arctic front of the world conflict (Ned Ediciones) offers a snapshot of the tensions in the Arctic through stories that span from Greenland to Alaska, featuring caregiving, Inuit, and Russian billionaires.

An Arctic History.

— On my last trip, I met an Inuit hunter. At 13 years old, he was fishing for seals among icebergs with his father when they were attacked by a polar bear.

Survival is difficult…

— The father punched the bear in the nose, which is the only sensitive part of their body, and the boy fired. I repeat, 13 years old. These are people who have had to adapt to everything, and he was telling me they can't adapt to climate change.

Because?

— Because they can't trust traditional knowledge. That's why the Arctic is today a concentration of many crises: climate, political, and also informational. It's very expensive to get there, and much of the territory is controlled by Russia, which has no interest in information getting out.

Russia occupies 52% of the border.

— And the Russians are obsessed with borders. In fact, there's no border guard there; there's the FSB, which is the secret service. And Russia is the historical power of the Arctic; they've been there since 1700, at least officially. The Arctic Fleet was founded by Peter the Great in 1700.

Is the key the sea?

— And what a sea! It's strategic because it stretches from the Pacific to the Antarctic. The melting ice makes it increasingly easier to navigate. And Russia can finally have the sea that the Russian Empire dreamed of.

That's why China wants it too.

— China holds a monopoly on maritime transport, which accounts for 90% of the market. The Suez Canal is vulnerable from a security standpoint; studies indicate that the Panama Canal could be affected by rising sea levels, making this an opportunity and a significant shortcut for China. Many days of travel would be saved.

The sea is wealth… and what may lie beneath it.

— There are serious studies indicating that 30% of the planet's untapped resources are located in the Arctic, and that this value could exceed that of the entire US economy.

He claims that it is not the Chinese century, it is the Arctic century.

— Without a doubt, it's like the discovery of America. A new continent has opened up; it's an incredibly rich territory, and everything is yet to be exploited. We can't even imagine the development it could achieve. If we continue living as we do, we'll continue to need fuel.

So if that's the new America... how do we guarantee global security?

— Security of what? It doesn't exist, there are no laws anymore. It's the Wild West.

Because?

— The laws created for the sea, theoretically meant to protect Arctic waters, are anachronistic. When they were drafted, no one anticipated the ice would melt. And then what happened with the Arctic Council occurred.

The division as a result of the war in Ukraine.

— Before 2022, there were over 400 joint projects between the United States and Russia alone. That's over now. We have NATO countries on one side and Russia on the other.

But doesn't that change with Trump?

— Yes, now it's distancing itself from NATO, and that has to do with Canada. In fact, the United States' interests in Canada lie in the Arctic. There's a route, the Northwest Passage, which Canada considers an internal passage and the United States an international one. And at the same time, Canada has opened itself up to collaborating with China because it needs money for investments. This creates a lot of friction.

Is the Arctic already at war?

— It is the only sea that has never known war. Even during the Cold War, it was a training ground, and therefore, compared to that Arctic, it is definitely a militarized Arctic. And it is an Arctic on the brink of conflict.

But Russia can't afford another war, can it?

— I don't believe Russia intends to escalate the war in Europe. And I think it's impossible to truly understand Russia; it's a contradiction because it's not a country that can be fully comprehended. But I am certain of one thing: if it comes to the Arctic, Russia could unleash a nuclear war. I'm certain of this because without the Arctic, Russia is finished. And Russia's paranoia has always been that it could be destroyed.

And you… when did you become interested?

— I started with the whales in Norway. A moratorium had been passed, and they could no longer be hunted. Norway was violating it, so I went aboard a whaling ship in the High Atlantic to understand what was happening. I looked at Norway, Iceland… until at one point, I realized I had to tell the story of the Russian Arctic.

It's worth it?

— Look, I managed to reach the northernmost settlement on the American continent. It's a place that was uninhabited until 1953. The Inuit were forcibly relocated there to assert Canadian sovereignty. And today, with the area under threat again, there are Inuit reporting similar actions. When I can denounce and explain certain things, I do believe we're doing work that is meaningful and important.