The New Cold War is in the Arctic

This year, the shrinking of the polar pack ice close to records in 2007 and 2008, recorded over thirty years of satellite surveillance. Area of old ice is reduced, the new ice is thin and less stable, and this trend, scientists believe, will continue. In the coming decades, the Arctic Ocean will become inaccessible and out of hostile territory in the border zone to use the new resources and transport. Thus, ironically, global warming could lead to a new Cold War, which will unfold among the icebergs and glaciers.

Conference, anxiety.

The fear that relations between the countries of the Arctic basin will increase the instability is not a figment of the imagination. Owned why the NATO program ... Indigenous peoples of the polar zone, the organizations that protect the environment, international oil companies have formed a team, gathered to discuss environmental issues in the area of the Arctic Ocean. The meeting, which was attended by experts from 17 countries, ended last Friday.

It was not a dress rehearsal for the territorial division of the Arctic zone, but according to Paul Berkman, head of the geo-political program in the Arctic with SPRI, the meeting was ... ...

Before the meeting, in an interview with the newspaper «Guardian», Admiral James Stavridis (James Stadyris), NATO Supreme Commander in Europe, warned: ...

... Intensive use of underwater resources - this is still the case in the distant future, but we still follow the course of events, to anticipate what could happen ...

Russia tops the list of countries interested in the exploitation of the Arctic region. The polar zones provide 14% of total GDP, 80 % natural gas, 90% extraction of nickel and cobalt in the country, although they live only 2 % of the Russian population.

Risk Policy and the Environment.

Excitement in the Arctic exhibit, for example, the ongoing military trials of the Russian Navy. More recently began final tests of the new strategic submarine ...

The danger for the environment is quite specific. Some organizations have to protect it expressed its concern over the transport of radioactive materials from Poland to the nuclear waste plant in the Urals, Russia. Bellona has warned that ships with dangerous cargo sail from the port of Gdynia in Poland, and round the Norway, bound for the port of Murmansk, is almost invisible to the Norwegian radar (due to their displacement). They float on the dangerous and stormy seas, representing potential targets for terrorist attacks or seizures.

In addition, the Arctic holds reserves of oil and metals. Indeed, the growing interest of governments to the polar sea bottom, which can contain up to 25 % of the world 's oil reserves, in addition to the huge deposits of gas and metals. The disaster at the ultra-deepwater oil rig Deepwater Horizon drilling in the Gulf of Mexico showed that the incident of this magnitude would lead to even more dramatic consequences for the environment and fragile polar ecosystems.

According to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the polar region of the country exercise sovereign rights in the exclusive economic zone extending 370 miles from their shores. However, each state may submit a request for expansion and operation of the zone, if he proves that the continental shelf extends beyond this boundary.

So, while the Norwegian government has just allocated 1.2 million euros to study the effect of exploitation of the seabed around the island of Jan Mayen on the environment, Russia has provided five new licenses to Russian companies Gazprom and Rosneft to extract oil and gas in the Kara and Barents . In general, the polar ice caps do not represent insurmountable obstacles to human activity, as it once was.



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