Arctic meltdown = oil, shipping & fish

With major companies and nations large and small adopting similar logic, the Arctic is undergoing nothing less than a great rush for virgin territory and natural resources worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Even before the polar ice began shrinking more each summer, countries were pushing into the frigid Barents Sea, lured by undersea oil and gas fields. The polar thaw is also starting to unlock other treasures: lucrative shipping routes, and important commercial fisheries.

If the melting continues, the mass of floating ice that has crowned the planet for millions of years may largely disappear for entire summers this century. The world would have a blue pole on top, a seasonally open sea nearly five times the size of the Mediterranean. But for now it is not clear where the fences are. Claims of expanded territory are being pursued the world over, but the Arctic Ocean is where experts foresee the most conflict. Only there do the boundaries of five nations - Russia, Canada, Denmark, Norway and the United States - converge.

The prize that is generating the biggest interest is oil. A push into the Barents Sea could help redraw the politics of energy allegiances, and gas in particular puts Russia in a strong position, with the Shtokman field reported to hold more than double all of Canada's gas reserves. Norway could even become a major supplier of oil and gas to China.

Already, oil tanker traffic is rising and fishing boats are going farther north. The advantage of maritime shortcuts across the top of the world can be startling. A revived Northern Sea Route could shorten the journey for goods and raw materials from Northeast Asia to Europe by 40 percent.

The Bering Sea already yields nearly half of America's seafood catch and a third of Russia's. Recent studies have projected that in a few decades there could be lucrative fishing grounds in waters that were largely untouched throughout human history.

(2005-10-13 18:11:35 SGT) [Env] Permalink

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