Canadians Plan Robot Sub Missions To Aid Claim For Arctic

jbpisio writes with a link to this blog-post summary that the Canadian government has commissioned a pair of unmanned subs to explore the geology of two underwater Arctic mountain ranges; the subs' mission will be to provide evidence supporting Canada's claim to huge swaths of potentially petroleum-rich seabed areas. According to the linked article, "The submersibles, scheduled to be launched in 2010, would be sent on a series of 400-kilometer missions north and west of Ellesmere Island, Canada's northernmost land mass and the country's gateway to the open Arctic Ocean — the scene of an international power struggle over undersea territory and petroleum resources believed to be worth trillions of dollars." At least five countries (besides Canada, these are the US, Russia, Denmark and Norway) would like a slice of those trillions.

Comments

Is it worth it?

[discards]

I wonder, with the economic crisis and the cost of fuel going down, will the race to claim and exploit Arctic fuel go ahead. The fuel there is ridiculously expensive to get to, so without oil being $100+ per barrel, will any of these countries really bother?

Cold war in the making

[bazorg]

If the ice melts and access to these areas becomes easier, I imagine there will be a major stand-off between the Navy forces of the major countries involved in this dispute and nobody will have the means to build any oil rig.

I hope that by then there will be a practical way to use hydrogen or something else instead of oil.

Re:Cold war in the making

[florescent_beige]

Canada doesn't have a major navy. There have been plans in the past to at least buy a polar-class ice breaker to patrol the north but that keeps getting canceled. Maybe it's back on (named, ironically enough, after Diefenbaker, he who murdered the Arrow. Harper has such a low opinion of Canadians he doesn't think we'll remember. Him and McKay, minister in charge of using his position to pick up chicks and lying through his pointy little teeth to the Progressive Conservatives, God Rest Their Souls.

Chances are, though, Harper is lying again.

At any rate, the Conservatives can be counted on to tool around with idiotic hardware to prove that Alberta is just as good as Texas. "Can we be Texas, please? Pleeeeeease?"

So, all it takes is planting the flag eh?

[hey!]

This could get very ugly.

The law of the sea supposedly governs this kind of thing. Determining the extent of the continental shelf can extend the exclusive national right for minerals up to 150 nm past the EEZ, so in theory the documentation of the shelf should be a benign action. But ultimately international law is enforced by warfare on various scales of intensity, starting at diplomatic sanctions, through economic sanctions, and all the way up as high as warfare can go.

International law is only what you can force a country to accept as international law. We know Russia wants to claim these resources, and gainsaying them can lead to armed conflict.

Back in 1991, I remarked that the course of the twenty first century would be determined by the integration of the former Soviet states into the world political, security and economic systems. The opportunity to do this, if it ever existed, was bungled by the first Bush administration, and now we are dealing with a militarily powerful, mineral rich nation with a paranoid persecution complex and authoritarian instincts. Do they have more invested in stability than they can get out of grabbing territory?

Re:Yeah I just had to do it

[ColdWetDog]

At risk of sounding like a naive hippy, can't we all just get along?

No.

What the fuck is wrong with humans that we can't see that its in *everybody's* best interest to not act like a bunch of 5 year olds in a playpen?

Three quotes from people way smarter than me:

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.(George Santayana) "

"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so." - Douglas Adams

and finally from St. Heinlein:

"Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. " Starship troopers, 1959

Re:Pure Fucking Insanity

[Jerry Rivers]

This is as much about protecting sovereignty as it is about oil, of which Canada already has the second largest reserve in the world. It doesn't really need any more, but it does need to protect itself from the expansionist greed of other nations.

But I do agree about the utter insanity of burning fossil fuels.