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The author challenges the argument that U.S. ratification of UNCLOS would help improve relations or resolve disputes between U.S. and Russia in the Arctic.
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Countries are scrambling to stake claim to untapped resources, previously frozen in the Arctic. But with a lack of basic infrastructure and funding commitments, critics say the U.S. trails other countries in preparations for the increased activity in the north.
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A study, published in the university’s journal Gemini, concludes that there are deposits of copper, gold, silver, zinc and other metals worth upwards of $71 billion – or one tenth of Norway’s vaunted oil fund – on the ocean floor. The scientists, however, said that the value of the minerals could be as much as $229 billion.
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A huge chunk of modern-day technology, from hybrid cars to iPhones to flat-screen TVs to radiation screens, use dozens of different metals and alloys. What would happen if we run short of any of these valuable metals? Say there's a war. Or unrest in a crucial mining region. Or China decides to lock up its strontium deposits. Could we easily come up with substitutes? Or is modern society vulnerable to a materials shortage?
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Buried beneath the world's oceans and the Arctic permafrost lies a global energy source that many think might dwarf today's fracking revolution: huge reservoirs of natural gas trapped in ice crystals. They're called methane hydrates and are sometimes known as "flammable ice." If tapping methane hydrates ever becomes feasible, it once again would change the geopolitical map of the planet. Nations like Japan and India that lack their own conventional oil and gas resources suddenly could become energy power players.
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New interest in the exploitation of seabed minerals has led to the revival of old concerns for the preservation of our oceans, argues Michael W. Lodge, Deputy to the Secretary-General and Legal Counsel of the International Seabed Authority.
[ More ]China’s status as an emerging player in the Arctic took yet another step forward yesterday as officials there marked the official opening of the China-Nordic Arctic Research Centre.
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President Vladimir Putin has ordered Russia’s armed forces to expand their presence in the Arctic region, one day after Canada confirmed its intent to lay claim to the sea bed under the North Pole.
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The possibility of China pulling out of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea has been mentioned in informal discussions among foreign affairs experts and observers but it was the first time that a Chinese scholar said it in public.
[ More ]While many existing oil and gas reserves in other parts of the world are facing steep decline, the Arctic is thought to possess vast untapped reservoirs. Eager to tap into this largess, Russia and its Arctic neighbors — Canada, Norway, the United States, Iceland and Denmark (by virtue of its authority over Greenland) — have encouraged energy companies to drill in the region.
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