In This Article
30-Second Summary
Headline Links: Russia's claim, the Law of the Sea, and the opening Northwest Passage
Background: The Cold Rush, Canada, Denmark, Russia, and Hans Island
Reaction: Ecologial effects of Arctic shipping
Historical Context: The "Arctic Grail"
Reference Material: The IPCC, the USGS, Arctic maps, and rising oceans
Related Stories: Climate tourism, Arctic thaw rates, impact on the Inuit, and the "Misery of 1953"
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Race for Arctic Intensifies as Russia Claims Pole
by
findingDulcinea Staff
Moscow announces that rock samples taken from beneath the Arctic Ocean indicate that the North Pole is part of Russia, a claim that underscores the increasing efforts of Arctic border nations to stake their claims to the valuable region.
30-Second Summary
The race for the thawing Arctic has begun. Teams of American, Danish, Canadian and Russian scientists have converged on the North Pole, each trying to establish its own nation's claims to the area's natural resources.
In addition to predictions from the U.S. Geological Survey asserting that the area holds up to 25 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil reserves, the potential for new shipping passages between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans––like the fabled Northwest Passage––will prove extremely profitable for whichever nations control them.
So far, Russia has been the only nation to actually stake a claim in the Arctic. However, Moscow’s claim is far from definitive.
According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a nation must establish that its own continental shelf extends beneath an ocean territory before claiming it. All the Russian rock samples prove is that the seabed is most likely a continental shelf. As to whose continental shelf it is, that’s still up in the air.
Historically, conflicts over Arctic territories are nothing new. Russia, the United States, Norway, Denmark, and Canada have been arguing about their borders there for years. But the area’s sudden accessibility has added a new fervor to the debate. As the polar ice continues to melt, making travel and exploration easier, there is no doubt that the debate over who owns the Arctic will only intensify.
In addition to predictions from the U.S. Geological Survey asserting that the area holds up to 25 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil reserves, the potential for new shipping passages between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans––like the fabled Northwest Passage––will prove extremely profitable for whichever nations control them.
So far, Russia has been the only nation to actually stake a claim in the Arctic. However, Moscow’s claim is far from definitive.
According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a nation must establish that its own continental shelf extends beneath an ocean territory before claiming it. All the Russian rock samples prove is that the seabed is most likely a continental shelf. As to whose continental shelf it is, that’s still up in the air.
Historically, conflicts over Arctic territories are nothing new. Russia, the United States, Norway, Denmark, and Canada have been arguing about their borders there for years. But the area’s sudden accessibility has added a new fervor to the debate. As the polar ice continues to melt, making travel and exploration easier, there is no doubt that the debate over who owns the Arctic will only intensify.
Headline Links: Russia's claim, the Law of the Sea, and the opening Northwest Passage
Ted McDorman, a law professor at the University of Victoria says that Russia must now prove that the Lomonosov Ridge—the area from which the samples were taken—is part of its continental shelf: “It might be Canadian or Danish ... The U.S. view is that even if [the ridge] is continental, there's a significant detachment from the mainland." Regardless, Russian officials are confident they can prove their claim and begin oil exploration in the Arctic.
Source: National Geographic
Since 1982 the United Nations Conventions on the Law of the Sea has provided the guidelines by which countries establish ocean territories.
Source: OceanLaw
Although the United States is not yet party to the Law of the Sea, the Senate is set to discuss the possibility in coming weeks. Wall Street Journal writers James A. Baker III and George P. Schultz explain why U.S. accession would serve national interests in the Arctic: “As we speak, international deliberations for rights to energy- and mineral-rich areas in the Arctic … are proceeding without U.S. input … If the U.S. was party to the treaty, we would strengthen our capacity to influence deliberations and negotiations involving other nations' attempts to extend their continental boundaries.”
Source: The Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Europe’s space agency has reported that for the first time in history the ice surrounding the fabled Northwest Passage has receded enough to make it passable for common sailboats. The passage connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans via a route around the top of North America.
Source: The BBC
Background: The Cold Rush, Canada, Denmark, Russia, and Hans Island
McKenzie Funk, Harper’s writer and author of the article “Cold Rush: The Coming Fight for the Melting North,” speaks with National Public Radio about the international race for the Arctic. Funk tells NPR that “in the Arctic the big opportunities are of course oil and gas exploration … the oil companies are looking north for their minerals and its not just oil, it’s a lot of natural gas, it’s other things like methane deposits which are everywhere.” Listen to the audio of the interview formatted for Real Audio Player.
Source: National Public Radio
Canada has taken steps to solidify its claims over the Arctic, announcing plans to build a $95 million deep-water port near the eastern entrance of the Northwest Passage. Prime Minister Stephen Harper also announced plans to increase its military presence by expanding its Arctic patrol force by 900 members.
Source: Reuters
A team of Danish scientists set sail for the Arctic on August 13 to investigate whether the Lomonosov Ridge is connected to Greenland, a Danish territory. Moscow has already argued the ridge is connected to Russia’s continental shelf, but has yet to produce any definitive evidence.
Source: The BBC
Moscow made headlines in early August after planting a titanium Russian flag on the floor of the Arctic Ocean. Russia's Foreign Minister told the press that "the aim of the expedition was not to stake Russia's claim but to show that our shelf reaches to the North Pole." More specifically, the mission intended to prove that a 1,000-mile underwater mountain range, called the Lomonosov ridge, was part Russia's continental shelf.
Source: The International Herald Tribune
The North Pole’s newly opening sea routes could not only shorten sailing times from Germany to Alaska by 60 percent, but would do so for an unheard of five months out of the year. In addition, the U.S. Geological Survey predicts that the Arctic may hold up to 25 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil and gas, which could be unearthed as the Artic icecap continues to melt.
Source: The Boston Globe
With the Arctic ice melting, experts foresee numerous conflicts between the five nations whose borders meet there. Russia, Canada, Denmark, Norway, and the United States all have borders along the Arctic, and all of them have already begun research into what swaths of territory their continental shelves entitle them to claim.
Source: New York Times
Canada and Denmark have been feuding for years over a desolate Arctic rock named Hans Island. Although the island has no discernible value itself, its location at the entrance to the Northwest Passage may be key to claiming ownership of the historic waterway, and the potential wealth to be realized from controlling it.
In August 2005, Canada’s defense minister raised a Canadian flag on Hans Island, prompting Denmark to send a warship to defend its claims of ownership over the island. NPR’s radio report discusses the incident and the much-debated possession of Hans Island.
Source: National Public Radio
Canada and Denmark have argued over Hans Island for nearly 40 years, trading claims and flags, and even burying bottles of liquor in a dispute that could influence sea navigation in the Arctic for years to come. The melting of Artic ice could dramatically raise the stakes in this long-running dispute.
Source: Canadian Geographic
Reaction: Ecologial effects of Arctic shipping
Discover Magazine examines the potential ecological consequences of increased shipping in the Arctic. Although the ability to use the Northwest Passage will save freighters traveling between Europe and Asia 4,000 miles and millions of dollars in fuel, it could have “devastating environmental consequences, including habitat destruction, introduction of invasive species, and perhaps worst of all, a high chance of oil or chemical spills that could be nearly impossible to clean up.”
Source: Discover Magazine
Historical Context: The "Arctic Grail"
The Northwest Passage is a water route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the northern islands of Canada. Forged by 300 years of exploration, Europeans first started looking for the “Arctic Grail” in order to shorten shipping routes to Asia in the 16th Century.
Source: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The most well known explorer to search for the Northwest Passage was the British explorer Sir John Franklin. With his two ships and crew of 134 men, Franklin set off for the Arctic in 1845, never to return. The interactive maps, pictures, and the original messages left by Franklin’s men provide an interesting look at the history of the “Arctic Grail.”
Source: PBS's Nova
Reference Material: The IPCC, the USGS, Arctic maps, and rising oceans
In its special report entitled "The Regional Impacts of Climate Change," the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change explains how the melting Arctic ice will affect the region’s ecology, economy, and navigation.
Source: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
The U. S. Geological Survey says that the Arctic region, including the controversial Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, is an “area of high resource potential.”
Source: The U.S. Geological Survey
The Arctic region is a veritable jigsaw puzzle of islands, ice shelves, and seas, with the North Pole sitting at its center. Maps of the Arctic show how close to one another the countries vying for the polar cap of the planet really are.
Source: Geography Guide
Melting ice at the North Pole doesn’t only affect the nations, peoples, and ecosystems of the region; it affects the rest of the world. The thawing of the world’s ice caps is expected to raise sea levels across the globe, affecting both coastal cities and the oceanic resources they thrive on.
Source: Greenfacts.org
Related Stories: Climate tourism, Arctic thaw rates, impact on the Inuit, and the "Misery of 1953"
The impact of global warming on places like the Arctic has given rise to a new type of tourism: climate tourism. Climate tourists seek out locations where the earth’s rising temperatures are inalterably changing the landscape. However, this new sort of niche tourism carries with it a rather large irony: the carbon dioxide emitted by the trains, planes, and cruise ships used to transport the tourists potentially contributes to the very warming that affects their destinations.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
The nations vying for the Arctic may get the chance to finalize their claims earlier than first thought. A group of U.S. scientists have reported that the Arctic ice is melting as much as three times faster than first predicted.
Source: USA Today
The Inuit are the indigenous peoples of the Arctic region whose way of life is being dramatically transformed by global warming. Their ice shelves are becoming increasingly unstable, the animals they hunt are disappearing, and their shorelines are eroding.
Source: CBS News
In 1953 the North Sea flooded much of the southwestern Netherlands. The Dutch fear that rising sea levels due to the planet’s melting polar caps will create another catastrophe like that of the “Misery of 1953.”
Source: The Seattle Times
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