An underwater feature called the Lomonosov Ridge extends from Russia's New Siberian Islands, across the North Pole and to Canada's Ellesmere Island. Denmark is working to prove that this oceanic ridge is actually an extension of Greenland. Each nation claims that the ridge is an extension of its continental shelf. According to the UN Convention on Law of the Sea, a nation has exclusive rights to the resources that lie on the continental shelf that extends from the nation.
Russia is sending an expedition to the North Pole to send a minisub to plant a flag on the ridge and backs it claim for ownership of the ridge.
Canada, in response, ordered C$7 billion in new military equipment and facilities to assert Canada's claim on Arctic resources. "The ongoing discovery of the north's resource riches, coupled with the potential impact of climate change, has made the region a growing area of interest and concern," said Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. "Canada has a choice when it comes to defending our sovereignty over the Arctic. We either use it or lose it. And make no mistake, this government intends to use it."
Denmark, in the meantime, is working with the Canadians to prove that the Lomonosov Ridge is an extension of Greenland (a Danish territory) and Ellesmere Island. The Danes are hopeful that international cooperation and treaties will prevail.
Canada's new Arctic warships won't be ready until 2012. With renewing belligerence between Russia, Western Europe, and the United States, how long will it be before Canada and Denmark request American assistance in asserting their claims to Arctic mineral resources? Is continued easy motoring really worth going up against a nuclear power?
More:
- Daily Green North Pole in colonial crosshairs.
- BusinessWeek Russia seeks claim to Arctic seabed.
- CBC Canada running out of time on Arctic claim.
- Globe & Mail: Less talk, more action.
Professor Michael Byers of the University of British Columbia says the neither the Conservative government nor its Liberal predecessor have put enough time or money into defending the country's economic zone near the North Pole.
- TreeHugger Russia claims North Pole.
3 comments:
hate Russia or whatever but facts are :its a former super power (u wouldn't punch mike Tyson today would you?)
Russia possesses the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world
*active troops = 1,037,000
*reserve = 2,400,000
*paramilitary = 359,100
*tanks = 28,381
*air craft carrier= 1
*warships = 110
*nuclear warheads= 16,800
*aircraft = 2800
*nuclear submarines= 35
*conventional subs = 18
canada
*active troops =62 ooo
*reserve =25 000
*tanks = 166
*warships = 15
*submarine =4
*aircraft = 138
*nuclear arms ="NATO shared"
and since any armed conflict will likely start on ice !
*Russia is the ONLY country in the world that has atomic icebreakers, and it is unlikely that icebreakers may appear in some other country soon!
*only Russia ,USA,japan,Britten have "Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle" essential for an arctic war.
(subs with ability to dive thousands of feet below water )
seems Canada hasn't invested well in its military even though it has a large area to protect thus has to rely on NATO every time questions of it sovereignty comes .lets all hope and pray its resolved peacefully
What nobody gets about Canada is the impossibly massive amount of oil it posseses, and if our government wanted to, we could divert most of our government spending to our military, like we partially did in WWI and WWII and we we major players in huge turning points in the war, ever heard of INTREPID? He cracked the Nazi code, which basically turned the whole war around, and he was Canadian too, and who gives a fuck about nuclear power? Nobody uses them and the chances are so small of them being used that it's pathetic and besides, Canada is sitting on top of the worlds biggest uranium and plutonium reserves on the planet, we just give most of it to the U.S for more money for shit like social services, just like our oil and water, and if we kept it all and used it for ourselves, there wouldn't be a hope of victory for Russia, and im positive Canadian citizens would NEVER stand for oppression from any other country, so at the very least there's 8,000,000 men right there for citizen soldiers, and our training is some of the best in the world, what Russia covers in 6 weeks our troops learn in 1, it just so happens that Russia and the USA glorify their military and need to gloat about having the biggest in the world, now I know that the USSR has got to be the worlds deadliest nation in history but that's dead and done and gone. P.S Japan can't even declare war, they revoked their right after getting their asses kicked in WWII
Let us not forget, Canada and the United Kingdom are tied militarily we never seperated, one and the same. You take on Canada, you also take on the United Kingdom. Suddenly we're not so puny, are we?
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