Environmental impacts of Arctic shipping activities: A review

Global warming has led to rapid warming in the Arctic region and continuous melting of ice and snow, and the seaworthiness of the Arctic shipping routes is increasing significantly. This has also aroused widespread concern from the international community regarding the environmental impact of Arctic shipping activities. Thus, this paper reviews 75 articles to evaluate the different impacts of Arctic shipping on the region's environment. The research results show that the impact of current Arctic shipping activities is extensive, and it can identify three major impacts: impact on water bodies, impact of air emissions and impact on animal survival. In this context, to mitigate the growing negative impact of shipping activities on the fragile Arctic environment, it is essential to adopt technical and operational solutions for ships and formulate new or stricter standards and rules for Arctic shipping activities. At the same time, existing research has gaps in four areas: Arctic environmental and ecological baseline surveys, quantitative research on the direct and synergistic environmental impacts from Arctic shipping, implications of Arctic shipping activities on aboriginal health, and the Arctic shipping gas emission model based on artificial intelligence technology. We recommend enriching relevant research to enhance the ability to assess the impacts of Arctic shipping routes.