 |
magazine / jf08
 |
January/February 2008 issue |
|
|
|
Slicing the polar pie
With vast resources lying under the floor of the Arctic Ocean, claims to the polar region are heating up. How will the boundaries be drawn?
By Steven Fick and Alyssa Julie
A team of Russian researchers made headlines last August
when they plunged their submarine 4,000 metres down
to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean to symbolically
plant their national flag. The incident highlighted growing pressures
on the international community to clarify international
boundaries at the top of the world, where a 21st-century
resource rush is gaining momentum.
The Arctic Ocean’s wealth of fossil fuels and minerals —
a booty estimated at 10 to 25 percent of the world’s supply —
is becoming increasingly valuable to polar nations. Warming
temperatures and superheated economic interests are spurring
Canada, the United States, Russia, Norway and Denmark
to jockey for a piece of the polar pie. There are two leading
proposals on the table for how to divide the territory
(below), a decision that will ultimately have enormous
economic implications.
As it stands, the United Nations Convention on the Law of
the Sea gives the five countries (other than the U.S., which has
yet to ratify it) jurisdiction over zones extending 200 nautical
miles from their coasts (below). But the UN says countries may
extend their claims if their continental shelf surpasses that limit
or if they can prove that an undersea ridge is an extension of
their shelf. Inevitably, portions will be unclaimable. Canada has
begun mapping its continental shelf to help bolster its claim.
To complicate matters further, many bilateral boundaries
within the 200-nautical-mile limit have not been finalized. The
Canada-U.S. border, for example, has been established to only
12 nautical miles offshore, and Canada and Denmark have not
agreed on the boundary north of Greenland.
| Current ownership |
|
Two proposals
for dividing the unclaimed polar region |
|
| |
Median line principle |
|
Sector method principle |
|
CLICK TO ENLARGE
|
|
CLICK TO ENLARGE
|
|
CLICK TO ENLARGE
|
|
• Sovereignty is automatic for
areas within a country’s 200-
nautical-mile limit
• Claims can be extended beyond the 200-nautical-mile limit if a country can prove that its continental
shelf surpasses the limit or that undersea ridges are part of its shelf. It is generally agreed
that the Lomonosov Ridge is part of the continental shelf of both Russia and Canada. The nature of the Alpha-Mendeleyev
Ridge is unclear, and the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge is not part of a continental shelf. |
|
• A median line is a line every
point of which is equidistant from the nearest point on the shoreline
• Favours Canada and Denmark, doubling the portion each would receive under the sector method principle (RIGHT)
• Russia would receive about the same under both principles
• The United Nations has shown some preference for this principle |
|
• Based on straight longitude lines
• Favours the United States and Norway, doubling the portion
each would receive under the median line principle (LEFT)
• Russia used this principle in its unsuccessful 2001 submission
to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf |
|
top
|
|
| ADVERTISEMENT |
|
|
|
|
