It’s Cold Up There: The World Watches As Russia Claims the North Pole

By Philip Shaw M.Sc.

Enamul will be shaking his head on this one.  It’s all about snow, ice, wind, sleet, oil, natural gas and global political gamesmanship.  The players are the United States, Russia, Canada, Norway and tiny Denmark.  For those of you totally confused in southern climates let me tell you.  This is not about Santa Claus.  It’s about Russia’s claim to the North Pole and Arctic sovereignty.  The rest of us up north are in a dither.

Still confused.  Don’t be.  I’m sure many of you have read the accounts over the last several weeks of Russia’s “stunt” to claim Arctic waters as there own.  Read this account from the British Newspaper “The Telegraph.”

“In an unprecedented and perilous mission, veteran Arctic explorer Artur Chilingarov descended 14,000 feet in a three-man deep sea submersible and dropped a Russian tricolor cast in titanium onto the seabed.

“The landing was smooth; the yellowish ground is around us, no sea dwellers are seen,” he said in a radio message to crew members on the surface, according to a Russian news agency”. (British Telegraph Aug 2, 2007)

For Canadians this is big news.  Growing up in Canada we are taught from childhood that the Arctic Archipelago is Canadian.  It might be a cold inhospitable place where hardly anybody lives, but it’s Canadian and that’s important.  The fabled Northwest Passage, the short cut to Asia has always been the subject of required reading for anybody in Canada.  Thinking some other country might have some claim on the Arctic has always been a sore point in the Canadian psyche.  Ditto I’m sure for my Russian counterparts.

However, who cares about a lot of snow, ice, and wind, to say nothing about a statistical “spot” on top of the world?”  For centuries, that has been the attitude for most of the nations who have arctic real estate.  With several months of darkness accentuated with –60 degree temperatures, the arctic had its natural and physical limitations.

So when polar explorers, John Franklin, Robert Peary, Richard Byrd, Roald Amundsen, Vitus Jonassen Bering, John Davis and Nils Nordenskjold plied the Arctic between 1585 and 1926 I’m sure they could never envision the day when arctic waters warmed up and the ice began to melt.  That’s where we are now.  With global warming taking shape these arctic waters are becoming relevant to the world’s economy.  Vast oil and gas resources lie underneath.  The last great economic frontier it would seem lies north.  Russia just fired their first shot with their canister on the bottom of the polar sea.  Others will surely follow.

Aside from the vast resource riches under the arctic ice, there are commercial considerations.  The North West passage and the North East passage offer considerable short cuts for resources between Asia and Europe and Asia and North America.  The North East passage north of Russia by some estimates of global warming will be commercially navigable in eight years.

There is a United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Sea to limit claims on the Arctic.  The United States, Russia, Canada, Norway and Denmark signed onto it in 1997.  This limited everyone to 200 miles of territorial waters.  However, these nations can file claims if they prove their continental shelves extend further.  That’s exactly what could cause tensions because Russia has done this and others will surely follow.

It’s interesting stuff.  However, it’s cold up there, really cold.  One of my endearing images of Dr. Enamul Haque was on a cold night in Guelph Ontario Canada in 1988.  It was bitterly cold that night with temperatures dipping to –25 degrees Celsius, snow and ice everywhere.  Enamul and I were walking toward our perspective vehicles.  On witnessing him navigating the ice, snow and cold as he got to his car, I remember wondering what he must think of this being from a tropical country.  In essence he looked “frozen” just like everything else.  It was about as inhospitable as it gets in southern Canada.

Meanwhile that month on the North Pole the average temperature was –35 degrees Celsius with wind chills making it about the most inhospitable place on earth. (Sorry Antarctica)  In the six months of darkness, I’m sure the pickles in the barrel would surely freeze.  It is not for the faint of heart.  Future economic expansion in the high arctic, although sexy to muse about does has its limitations.

However, that hasn’t stopped Russia from spending millions to put their flag into a canister at the bottom of the dark frigid waters at the North Pole.  I’m sure my friends in the developing world like flooded Bangladesh must be shaking their heads.  However, its big news “up here.”  Our world is changing and its pretty obvious the Arctic is becoming more relevant to the world’s economy.

Lunar Land Up For Grabs too!
A.K. Enamul Haque, PhD

Yes the news of Russia planting its flag at the seabed beneath the Arctic caught my eyes too.  In fact, last week I was talking about the claims made on Antarctica by several western countries in my class.  My discussion was on claims and counter claims on territories by the nations and how it was linked with the abundance of resources.   I never imagined that a week later Russia would make the headlines by doing almost exactly this.  The place, however, is the north and not the south.

Now that Russia has done it and now that other nations will follow soon, I wonder whether the world had ever resolved the ownership issue in a civilized manner!  Why am I saying this?  Well, two years ago, I was in Kolkata visiting a friend at Jadavpur University and there she was telling me that a week ago she was invited to a gala party thrown by the first Bengali who had purchased a plot of land on the moon!   So far 1,125,000 plots of lunar land have been sold to citizens of 176 countries in the world!  Don’t believe this visit www.lunarlandowner.com.  You can virtually visit your plot and enjoy the lunar sky!  More than 300 acres of land in the moon has been sold already.  Want to know your neighbors?  You will find more that 250 celebrities including more than 30 former NASA scientists, and 2 former US presidents!  That Indian fellow was the first Indian, first Bengali to become a “proud” owner of land on the moon!  I told her that I knew about selling plots on the moon but I always thought that Bengalis are better bred than others and never could imagine that some Bengali will do it so soon!  Then again I realized the famous phrase of Sir William Hunter, “What Bengalis think today, Indians think tomorrow”.

If you are wondering who is selling the plots and on what legal basis they are doing this?  The answer is the same.  The flag posted (not hoisted!) by the astronauts of the Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong gave the US an inherent right to claim the moon!  This kind of hegemony existed before.  More than 500 years ago Columbus did the same while accidentally landing on the current American continent and claimed ownership despite the fact that millions of people were already living there!  Did it matter whether you find people in a “new land” or when you claim, “The landing was smooth; the yellowish ground is around us, no sea dwellers are seen”?

I do believe what Phil has just apprehended, “others will surely follow”.  This was true then and it is true now.  Do you believe that we are living in a civilized society?  We are still living in the world of Darwin – survival of the fittest or in the world of “might is right”.  Western explorers visited the poles several times; I do not know whether it was for claiming new land or for the inherent human craving to know the unknown and discover.  However, one thing I know for sure that when Sir Edmond Hillary climbed up to the Everest in the Himalayas he also “hoisted” a flag and that did not give him the ownership right over the peak.   According to the claim put forward by the Lunar Embassy at the LunarLand.com the “US Congress has finally accepted their claim on lunar land”.   According to the report it was due to Mr. Dennis Hope who founded the company, and he has been named as the co-chair of the REPUBLICAN Congressional Business Advisory Council.  No wonder why the world is in trouble due to a Republican seating at the helm of the US powerhouse.

Unfortunately, however, the world is not as dumb as before.  There will be few more additions into the race for land on the moon!  China is expected to join the exclusive lunar club by 2010 and India by 2020.  How about Bangladesh!  Well, I guess, there will be some free land available due to such a large scale out migration onto the moon.  We will just grab them!

The story about competition for Arctic land in a -35 degree temperature is a very interesting one.  I think while we may not be able to “fly up”, we can “dive down” and claim a piece of the pie in the Arctic!  Can we do this or shall we do this?  Nay!