The warming waters in the arctic circle have been prophesied to mean many things: a dangerous rise in sea level, loss of habitat for dozens of animals and even improvement to others, but it is also paving the way for new advantages for the lands in between these poles. There is high demand for knowledge of the Arctic’s territorial waters, specifically the transit routes that could be designed there, not to mention natural resources. Tensions are very high in the Arctic, and the superpowers of the world are already giving chase to the potential gold mines hidden there.
DOES THE US HAVE A LACK OF CAPACITY?
US President Barack Obama is travelling to Alaska this coming Monday, and this will make him the first to ever visit the Arctic Circle while still in office, and his goal is to discover what the true effects of climate change are in the region. This approach has been revealed to be unexpected, given the fact that there is so much more to uncover. Adm Paul Zukunft of the Coast Guard says there has been clamoring about our nation’s lack of capacity to sustain any meaningful presence in the Arctic.
RUSSIA TAKES FULL ADVANTAGE OF CLIMATE CHANGE
The Chukchi Sea has seen an increase in vessel presence as time has come along, from all kinds of territories, most notably, Russia, who still presses on allocating the land surrounding the North Pole. The nation recently declared its intentions to claim large portions of the Arctic Ocean, even claiming that the continental shelf extending into the sea is also Russian territory under the Law of the Sea convention. The United States has yet to ratify the measure to allow Russia to make these claims, but Russia may be willing to take as much advantage of the potential new resources as possible, in as little time as necessary.
WILL TENSIONS CONTINUE TO RISE?
The Arctic Circle is very valuable. It contains untapped reserves of oil, gas and fish, and it could open new developments as the glaciers continue to recede. Russia is already building 10 new search-and-rescue stations at ports of the Arctic shoreline, and has increased military presence in the region, even going as far as dropping 50 paratroopers onto the North Pole.
President Obama’s mission will is not to journey to Alaska to open talks with Russia, but there is definitely a strenuous atmosphere in the Arctic, not only between the US and Russia, but Canada as well. However, there is a strict level of diplomacy being kept between the nations in the region to preserve the relationship between them and to take as objective an approach to the opportunities that present themselves as possible.
There is no telling if Russia will continue to slowly stake its claim to Arctic waters, but for now, all’s well in the Arctic Circle.
