d e e p t ! (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} diffdrummer) wrote,@ 2007-10-19 14:05:00 |
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Race for Ice Begins flagged off by Media Celebrity, Ms.Global Warming
Thanks to Global Warming, the Arctic is up for auction and a major increase in action in the years to come. The famed North-West passage could be a bustling trade route anytime now. Chinese are already making all the Dutch pottery(Delftware). The tradition that started in Denmark in 17th century to so that they could compete with Chinese pottery. The battle has come a full circle, the Chinese have won(again!) and they need the North-West Passage for sending all that burnt clay from Asia to Scandinavia. So do the Americans and the Russians (and the Canadians in smaller font.)
The North West Passage
The North-West Passage and the Arctic Ice cap are not going to be in the hands of walrus and seal hunters or the occasional marine reseach crew for long. The warming of Northern Oceans have led to longer ice-free periods in summer leading to traffic commotion and more importantly revealing the hitherto hidden, lucrative undersea deposits of oil and gas. Where there is oil, there is a war(the smoke and fire analogy is so outdated.) and the war has begun.
The Russians came first. Fifty years and fresh from a surprise win seized by Sputnik later, they made it good for the moon-landing setback by planting a tricolor Russian flag made of titanium, three miles below the polar ice cap on the yellow mucky sea-floor in Aug this year. Looks like they've more restrained territorial ambitions this time around, nothing as far and away as the moon, just a chunk of ice, closer home. But they are serious, as Mr. Chilingarov, Russia's most famous Arctic explorer and a deputy speaker of parliament, made clear before flag 'submersion' ceremony, that the effort is not just about expanding the horizons of science. "We are here to define the outer limit of Russia's territory," he said.
A month before that in July, the US had announced that it would be increasing its ability to patrol the Arctic. What is there to patrol if Russians make off, right under the American noses, with all that petrol ? Looks like Americans thought about this same question long and hard and decided to send a team of oceanographers aboard the Coastguard ship Healy. They came back in September this year armed with sonar studies which found hints that thousands of square miles of additional seafloor could potentially be under American control. The floor might yield important deposits of oil, gas or minerals in coming decades. Royal Dutch Shell is preparing for exploratory oil drilling off Alaska's Arctic coast beginning next year. The Coast Guard is going to set up its first operating base on Arctic Ocean in the US's northern most town - Barrow, Alaska.
Coastguard vessel Healy in the Arctic (Photo by Dave Withrow/United States Coast Guard, via Associated Press)
Canada, which has the second-longest Arctic coastline, is currently conducting a $70 million project to map the seabed on its side as a prelude to making its own submission to the UN. Other competitors include Norway and Denmark(because of their claim on Greenland.)
How do you decide how much sea your country owns? The 1982 Law of the Sea Convention establishes a 12-mile offshore territorial limit for each country, plus a 200-mile "economic zone" in which it has exclusive rights.(US Congress is yet to ratify the treaty which is why American are suffering a slow pace in this race.) Under the treaty, countries have a small menu of benchmarks they can choose from to make a bid for extending their jurisdictions beyond 200 miles. They can use the foot of the slope leading from the top of the continental shelf to the deep-seafloor. They can use an imaginary line along the slope at a depth of 8,250 feet. Or they can pick a spot where the depth of the muck on the deep-sea bottom is 1 percent of the distance between that point and the foot of the continental shelf. Countries can pick the approach that gives them the most leverage.
It is evident from the unfolding drama that some major changes will take place in the geopolitical climate of the world in the future. Eskimos will be the next Arabs, Middle East will shift to North Pole, directional North sign will be elimnated because all the world will lie South of the action (the North Pole), Polar bears will meet penguins for the first time when they both apply for refugee status at Galapagos, frozen dihydrogen monoxide will be a major building material - fit for kings(as marble used to be) and ice sculptors would be in great demand, whale blubber will replace caviar(same difference), but there still would be no hope to poor people - they will remain poor.
Thanks to Global Warming, the Arctic is up for auction and a major increase in action in the years to come. The famed North-West passage could be a bustling trade route anytime now. Chinese are already making all the Dutch pottery(Delftware). The tradition that started in Denmark in 17th century to so that they could compete with Chinese pottery. The battle has come a full circle, the Chinese have won(again!) and they need the North-West Passage for sending all that burnt clay from Asia to Scandinavia. So do the Americans and the Russians (and the Canadians in smaller font.)
The North West Passage
The North-West Passage and the Arctic Ice cap are not going to be in the hands of walrus and seal hunters or the occasional marine reseach crew for long. The warming of Northern Oceans have led to longer ice-free periods in summer leading to traffic commotion and more importantly revealing the hitherto hidden, lucrative undersea deposits of oil and gas. Where there is oil, there is a war(the smoke and fire analogy is so outdated.) and the war has begun.
The Russians came first. Fifty years and fresh from a surprise win seized by Sputnik later, they made it good for the moon-landing setback by planting a tricolor Russian flag made of titanium, three miles below the polar ice cap on the yellow mucky sea-floor in Aug this year. Looks like they've more restrained territorial ambitions this time around, nothing as far and away as the moon, just a chunk of ice, closer home. But they are serious, as Mr. Chilingarov, Russia's most famous Arctic explorer and a deputy speaker of parliament, made clear before flag 'submersion' ceremony, that the effort is not just about expanding the horizons of science. "We are here to define the outer limit of Russia's territory," he said.
A month before that in July, the US had announced that it would be increasing its ability to patrol the Arctic. What is there to patrol if Russians make off, right under the American noses, with all that petrol ? Looks like Americans thought about this same question long and hard and decided to send a team of oceanographers aboard the Coastguard ship Healy. They came back in September this year armed with sonar studies which found hints that thousands of square miles of additional seafloor could potentially be under American control. The floor might yield important deposits of oil, gas or minerals in coming decades. Royal Dutch Shell is preparing for exploratory oil drilling off Alaska's Arctic coast beginning next year. The Coast Guard is going to set up its first operating base on Arctic Ocean in the US's northern most town - Barrow, Alaska.
Coastguard vessel Healy in the Arctic (Photo by Dave Withrow/United States Coast Guard, via Associated Press)
Canada, which has the second-longest Arctic coastline, is currently conducting a $70 million project to map the seabed on its side as a prelude to making its own submission to the UN. Other competitors include Norway and Denmark(because of their claim on Greenland.)
How do you decide how much sea your country owns? The 1982 Law of the Sea Convention establishes a 12-mile offshore territorial limit for each country, plus a 200-mile "economic zone" in which it has exclusive rights.(US Congress is yet to ratify the treaty which is why American are suffering a slow pace in this race.) Under the treaty, countries have a small menu of benchmarks they can choose from to make a bid for extending their jurisdictions beyond 200 miles. They can use the foot of the slope leading from the top of the continental shelf to the deep-seafloor. They can use an imaginary line along the slope at a depth of 8,250 feet. Or they can pick a spot where the depth of the muck on the deep-sea bottom is 1 percent of the distance between that point and the foot of the continental shelf. Countries can pick the approach that gives them the most leverage.
It is evident from the unfolding drama that some major changes will take place in the geopolitical climate of the world in the future. Eskimos will be the next Arabs, Middle East will shift to North Pole, directional North sign will be elimnated because all the world will lie South of the action (the North Pole), Polar bears will meet penguins for the first time when they both apply for refugee status at Galapagos, frozen dihydrogen monoxide will be a major building material - fit for kings(as marble used to be) and ice sculptors would be in great demand, whale blubber will replace caviar(same difference), but there still would be no hope to poor people - they will remain poor.
