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Gold rush under the ice
Aug 3rd 2007
From Economist.com
RUSSIAs foray into the Arctic is an audacious geopolitical adventure, as popular at home as it is troubling for outsiders. At stake are the regions natural riches, until now frozen both in law and in nature. But global warming is making them look more accessible. They may include 10 billion tonnes of oil and gas deposits, tin, manganese, gold, nickel, lead, platinum and diamonds, plus fish and perhaps even lucrative freight routes. Exploiting them will be technically tricky, and is probably decades away. But as the ice melts, the row is hotting up about who owns whats underneath it.
The five Arctic Circle countriesAmerica, Canada, Denmark (which looks after Greenlands interests), Norway and Russiaeach have a 200 mile (322km) economic zone allowed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Russia argued in 2001 that its continental shelf stretched out into the Arctic, entitling it to a larger chunk. The UN said it needed more evidence.
That is what this weeks expedition, led by Russias most glamorous explorer, Artur Chilingarov, is trying to prove. By taking rock samples from the seabed, it hopes to arm Russian scientists with proof that the Lomonosov Ridge, an underwater mountain chain, is a continuation of Russias landmass.
That would allow the Kremlin to annex a 460,000 square mile wedge of territory, roughly the size of western Europe, between Russias northern coastline and the North Pole. Such international maritime-border wrangles normally progress at a snail's pace, and are stupefyingly boring. When Denmark allocated $25m in 2004 to try to prove that the Lomonosov Ridge was connected to Greenland, few noticed or cared.
But the latest Russian expedition is not just collecting geological samples; on Thursday August 2nd it placed the Russian flag (in titanium) on the yellow gravel 4,200 metres below the surface at the site of the North Pole. That was the first manned mission there, mounted by a polar flotilla that no other country could match. A mighty nuclear-powered icebreaker shepherded a research vessel that launched hi-tech mini-submarines capable of pinpoint navigation under the Arctic ice.
For outsiders used to stories of Russian bungling and backwardness, that was a salutary reminder of the world-class technical clout and human genius the Kremlin can still command.
Even more startling, though, was Russias rhetoric. The Arctic is ours and we should manifest our presence, said Mr Chilingarov, a charismatic figure whom President Vladimir Putin has named as presidential envoy to the Arctic. This is like placing a flag on the moon said Russias Arctic and Antarctic Institute.
The stunt has no legal force. But it still scandalised Canadas foreign minister, Peter MacKay. This isnt the 15th century, he complained. You cant go around the world and just plant flags and say Were claiming this territory. Russias foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, insisted that his country was doing nothing of the kind. But Andrei Kokoshin, chair of a parliamentary committee on the ex-Soviet region, said Russia will have to actively defend its interests in the Arctic, adding: There is something to think about on the military side as well. We need to reinforce our Northern Fleet and our border guards and build airfields so that we can ensure full control.
Canada, punily defended since the end of the cold war, is now planning to spend $7 billion on eight new Arctic patrol vessels. Americas Congress is considering spending $100m to update three ageing polar icebreakers and build two more.
But the biggest change may be in Americas attitude to international law. A small but vocal lobby that objects to international administration of seabed mining has so far blocked the Bush administrations attempts to have the Convention on the Law of the Sea ratified by Congress. But even the most die-hard American freemarketeer may have to accept that international bureaucrats are a better bet than the Kremlins crony capitalists when it comes to getting a fair slice of the polar action.
http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9607005