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Posted on Aug 10, 2007

For years the North Pole has been considered international territory, and that seemed to suit everyone just fine until global warming came along, making it theoretically easier to extract oil and gas from the region. The Russians kicked off the land grab by planting an underwater flag, and now Denmark is launching a similar expedition. Canada, Norway and the U.S. also have territory disputes in the Arctic.


BBC:

The month-long Danish expedition will study the Lomonosov Ridge. Russia believes the underwater feature is linked to its territory.

Denmark will investigate the ridge to see if it is geologically connected to Greenland, a Danish territory.

Canada, Norway and the US also have claims in the Arctic.

The area is believed to be rich in oil and gas reserves, which global warming could make easier to extract as the ice melts.

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RAE's avatar

By RAE, August 11, 2007 at 3:19 pm Link to this comment

You’d think with the millions of square miles of (for now) frozen ice cubes involved we various peoples could sit down and divvy it up equitably without going to war.

But no. Let’s spend billions on international squabbles and sabre-rattling. Let’s do everything we can to ensure that what could easily be a win-win for all involved turns into hostility, bad feelings and maybe worse.

I have a feeling there’s going to be a lot more hardware than a flag in a can buried in the bottom at the North Pole before this is settled.

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By Mariam Russell, August 11, 2007 at 10:55 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

The final chapter in the RESOURCE WARS?

Sad, isn’t it?

We coulda’, shoulda’, ....... Oh well.

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By ardee, August 11, 2007 at 9:39 am Link to this comment

Oh boy a hot war over one of the coldest spots on the planet…Ironic aint it?

Capitalism good, socialism bad. Self interest and greed good, cooperation and fairness very bad. Exploitation is the answer, saving the planet isnt even a question…...after all, when the waters rise and civilisation collapses we have our secure and isolated estates to fall back on, err dont we?

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By Scott, August 11, 2007 at 8:52 am Link to this comment

The North Pole seabed is not currently regarded as part of any single country’s territory and is governed instead by complex international agreements.

What would we ever do without those complex international agreements eh?

Its not hard to imagine a collective rolling of humanity’s eyes over the way our politicians and governments are rapidly getting all puffed up over this. Am I supposed to believe that if push comes to shove that my glorius leader (Stephan Harper) will go to war over this? We are after all bolstering our navy and military because of all this.

If there was ever an issue that underscores how ill-suited our sub-divided species is for the challenge of meeting global scale problems its this one.

Its just a good thing we don’t have an asteroid or invading aliens bearing down on us, we’d be tripping all over ourselves in our haste to do anything about it.

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By PaulMagillSmith, August 10, 2007 at 4:51 pm Link to this comment

So now we’re going to smear that black oily mess all over the arctic, AND fight over it no less. Maybe if the US wasn’t so greedywe could come to an international agreement that would really work.

Naw, Bush would break that one, too, just like he has with others. Gee, if I’m a citizen and I don’t trust our fearless leader how is the fearless leader from another country, especially speaking another language, supposed to?

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