SENTINEL WATCH October 29, 2007 Issue

WHO OWNS THE NORTH POLE?

CHANNING WALKER

UNTIL RECENTLY, that question scarcely mattered to anyone. The Pole—in fact, the whole Arctic ice cap—was too remote, too desolate, too inaccessible, and just plain too cold to generate attention. But now, interest in it is heating up along with the planet. The reasons? Oil and fish, mainly. Additionally, new and faster shipping routes and the possible discovery of minerals look promising.

Experts report that vast oil reserves and enormous natural fisheries lie beneath the polar ice cap. But getting at them hasn't been possible. Now, as global warming shrinks the Arctic—this past summer the ice cap reached a record low in size—the impossible may become achievable.

So, a land grab, somewhat reminiscent of the one European engaged in a few centuries ago after the discovery of the Western Hemisphere, is underway. Several nations—with Russia, Canada, Norway, Denmark, and the United States leading the pack—are now jockeying for position in the race to claim as much undersea turf as possible. Will the rivals of today's land grab spiral toward full-blown war as European nations once did? Hopefully and most likely not.

About the author

Contributing editor channing Walker is a Christian Science practitioner. He lives in Mountain Center, a small village of 350 inhabitants in the San jacinto Mountains of California.

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