http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic

The true Arctic is actually “subarctic”, based on climate and ecology. The word “Arctic” comes from the Greek word “arktos”, which means bear, referring to the constellation above the Arctic – “The Big Bear”.

Tasha thought: To her "Arctic" is a concept of natural sciences, as well as social-darwinistic stories about indigenous people. Once she heard about Chukotka, located at the end of far away Siberia, from an artist based in Moscow. They talked about the weather and airplanes. The artist used to travel there to visit relatives, and once the plane was delayed. She waited for two weeks.
The Arctic is hot. Global warming and other climate changes will become apparent here first, as an early warning sign. So Tasha is here to warn. She should follow in her father’s footsteps, make a log book of the weather conditions and temperatures, and note the date when the ice breaks in the Tana river. She should pay attention to the climate, while she sits here and paints flowers.

The Andreeva Bay, some 30 kilometres from the Norwegian border, is one of the most alarming threat potentials on Kola Peninsula in Russia. Militarised zones make it difficult for international experts to start to secure storage facilities for nuclear fuel and radioactive waste. Tasha tells us that now it is dangerous for people to stay in Nikel, the border town of Kirkenes on the Russian side. The huge amount of sulphur dioxide in the air has turned the leaves on the trees brown.

In Norway, Tromsø (with its 60,000-70,000 inhabitants) is regarded as a big city, and it behaves like an urban and international city. Other “big cities” in the border region are Rovaniemi in Finland, Luleå in Sweden and Murmansk in Russia. These cities seem to be regarded as more “peripheral” within their own countries. Tromsø, Rovaniemi and Murmansk (the closest “big cities”) are regarded as “Arctic” cities, due to their Arctic and polar research.

Murmansk is the biggest city above the Arctic circle and is almost as big as the capital of Norway. Now it wants to become the capital of the Arctic. Young people from towns and villages move to the “big” cities in the North or elsewhere and villages are being abandoned, or are changing to become summer residents or to serve tourism.

“Why do you always talk about the Arctic ocean?” I ask my friend from the South, sharing the sun with me on my staircase. “What is it up there that exerts a pulling force on you? I went to Spitsbergen once. It is beautiful, but I do not care whether I go back or not.”

“It is the big emptiness, the big white, the never setting sun,” he replies.
“Is that the Arctic Sublime? If you have been there once you will always long to go back.”
”Yes,” he says. “It was a concept that emerged in the 19th century, and is not widely used.”
“You are a romantic, aren’t you? Great truth lies in big emptiness and quiet silence....”
“The surrounding space is so huge that you kind of lose yourself, become fluid and start to feel something like a cosmic love.”