Rush for land under the ice
Living here on the coast we're all familiar with the saying 'They aren't make any more waterfront property'. While all the waterfront property around here is pretty much taken there's a new type of 'waterfront property' that has the power brokers of the world lining up for the game of the millennium.
In the fifties and sixties the word 'Plastics' was whispered in the ears of college graduates. For the last ten years it has changed to 'look north' for those with a long view of things.
The land referred to is pretty much under Arctic ice for the moment but there's getting to be less and less ice every year. Surveys have found that the sea bottom under Arctic ice is home to approximately 90 billion barrels of undiscovered and recoverable oil. Additionally, preliminary estimates are that one-third of the world's natural gas may be harbored under the Arctic's ice. But wait there's more, the Arctic also contains large mineral deposits. As and example, Canada, which wasn't a diamond-producing nation is now the third-largest diamond producer in the world thanks to recent discoveries in melting tundra.
In 2007, a Russian expedition planted a flag on the bottom of the Arctic polar sea floor at 14,000 feet below the surface. This act has brought about a renewed interest in the Arctic and kicked off a great deal of activity -- scientific, economic and military.
Arctic nations are building up their military presence on, over and under the ice. Russia recently announced that it's deploying two brigades to the Arctic, including a special forces unit and bomber flights over the Pole have been resumed. Canada, Denmark and Norway are also rapidly rebuilding their military presence. Two U.S. nuclear-powered attack submarines, the SSN Connecticut and the SSN New Hampshire, recently finished conducting exercises in the Arctic.
The United States, Canada, Russia, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden and Finland all claim a stake to a portion of the Arctic and it's resources. These countries make up the Arctic Council which is designed to mediate disputes on Arctic issues.
If you're involved in fisheries or environmental issues in the Gulf of Mexico you seen kind of land rush before. In 1983 then president Ronald Reagan signed Executive Order 5030, setting up the “Exclusive Economic Zone of the United States of America”. This zone is called the EEZ and was the next to last and greatest land-grab the world has known. The EEZ extends out 200 nautical miles from the coasts of the US.
This concept of having legal control vs. de facto control over so much of the surface area of the planet was so well liked by other governments around the world that now any nation who has a boarder fronting on the sea has set up something similar.
The EEZ is intended is to … “ establish an Exclusive Economic Zone by the United States to advance the development of ocean resources and promote the protection of the marine environment, while not affecting other lawful uses of the zone, including the freedoms of navigation and over-flight, by other States.”
The primary intent of establishing the EEZ wasn't the protection and management of the living resources out to 200 miles but rather control of the mineral resources under the seabed. Given the threat of control of the world’s oil resources by middle-eastern governments, at the time the EEZ was established, it was a protective response by the United States. Still, creation of the EEZ has provided for some real gains in the management of fishery resources in the Gulf of Mexico and the rest of the United States’ territorial waters. Fish don't know or care which state’s or countries' water they in. The Fishery Management councils, coupled with the authority from the establishment of the EEZ’s, have set up a regulatory process for fisheries management which is on course to provide for sustainable and fair management of the Gulf's fishery resources.
The next resource grab will probably be on the moon or the asteroids.
Think Global – Act Local!
