Who Owns the Arctic?

Dispute over Hans Island nears resolution. Now for the Beaufort Sea

John Ibbitson, Globe and Mail, January 27, 2011

Negotiators are now confident that Canada and Denmark will resolve their dispute over Hans Island, and sooner rather than later.

Relations between the two countries have grown irritable at times in recent years because of their competing claims to the barren bit of rock perched halfway between Ellesmere Island and Greenland. Also in dispute is a patch of the Lincoln Sea even farther north.

But the two countries are in negotiations and have embarked on a joint mapping exercise, and both Canadian and Danish officials, speaking on background, said they were confident of reaching an agreement before Canada deposits its claim over the Arctic seabed to the United Nations in 2013.

Shared jurisdiction of the island is one possibility; another is running the border down the middle of the uninhabited, 1.3-square-kilometre knoll, which would give Canada a land border with Denmark.

Tory focus on Arctic sovereignty buoys poll results

 

Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper talks with Chief of Defence Staff Walt Natynczyk while standing on an iceberg in Allen Bay in Resolute, Nunavut August 25, 2010. Photograph by: Chris Wattie/Reuters, National Post

Randy Boswell, PostMedia News, January 26, 2011

A new international survey on Arctic issues, which suggests Canadians have a stronger sense of possessiveness toward their northern territories than the world’s seven other polar nations, is being viewed by observers as an affirmation of the Conservative government’s steady focus on the region since taking office five years ago this week.

The End of History for Russian Oil

Liam Denning, Wall Street Journal, January 23, 2011

The Soviet Union ended in December 1991. In years to come, historians may well date the end of the Soviet oil industry to January 2011.

This month, Rosneft, the Kremlin-controlled oil giant, signed a deal to jointly explore for oil and gas in Russia's Arctic waters with Western major BP. For Russia's sake, it would be fortunate if this heralds a new era.

As Arctic melts, U.S. ill equipped to tap resources

By Jacquelyn Ryan, Washington Post, January 10, 2011 

KODIAK, ALASKA - Flying over the Arctic Circle, the Coast Guard C130 rumbled as it alternated between 500 and 2,500 feet, its high-tech equipment quietly observing the thickness and stretch of ice along Alaska's northern border.

Cold air rushed through the open cargo door as some musk oxen and the occasional walrus passed below.

Like the rest of the 2.5-million-square-foot area at the top of the world, this chunk of the U.S. Arctic is melting quickly because of accelerated climate change. The prospect of newly thawed sea lanes and a freshly accessible, resource-rich seabed has nations jockeying for position. And government and military officials are concerned the United States is not moving quickly enough to protect American interests in this vulnerable and fast-changing region.

Arctic treaty will push Canada to upgrade rescue capabilities, experts say

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A view of the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Louis S. St-Laurent as it makes its way through the ice in Baffin Bay. An international agreement that divides the North into search-and-rescue regions comes as air and shipping traffic continues to grow in the Arctic. JONATHAN HAYWARD/THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO

Bob Weber, The Canadian Press (Toronto Star, January 5, 2010)

The federal government is poised to sign an international treaty that will make Canada legally responsible for search and rescue in its part of the Arctic.

Northern experts say the deal, expected to be signed in May, could pressure Canada into upgrading its capabilities in the region. And, they add, it shows new resolve by the eight nations in the Arctic Council to show the rest of the world that they intend to set the rules for the uppermost reaches of the planet.

“By ratcheting up the capabilities of the Arctic Council, countries like the United States, Russia and Canada are essentially saying, ‘No, we have matters under control. We are making laws for this area. You can relax,’ ” said Michael Byers, an international law professor at the University of British Columbia who has written extensively on the Arctic.