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Denmark Makes Claim To North Pole, Based On Undersea Geography
As reported by The Independent, A scientific study has found that Greenland is actually connected to the area beneath the polar ice where the North Pole lies – thanks to a huge stretch of continental crust known as the Lomonosov Ridge.
Since Greenland is a Danish territory, that gives the country the right to put its hat in the ring for ownership of the stretch of land, Denmark’s foreign minister [Martin Lidegaard ] said. ... Of the five Arctic countries – the US, Russia, Norway, Canada and Denmark —only Canada and Russia had indicated an interest in the North Pole territory until now. "This is a historical milestone for Denmark and many others as the area has an impact on the lives of lot of people. After the U.N. panel had taken a decision based on scientific data, comes a political process," Lidegaard told The Associated Press in an interview on Friday. "I expect this to take some time. An answer will come in a few decades. Why such a big deal? As Business Insider notes, The U.S. currently estimates that the Arctic sea bed could contain 15% of the earth's remaining oil, along with 30% of the planet's natural gas and 20% of its liquefied natural gas. Whichever country is able to successfully claim the Arctic would have the right to extract these resources.
Very ironic that what makes oil available in the Arctic is global warming...
If being connected to land by underwater ridges gave right of ownership the map would look very different. Besides which it looks as though the other end of the ridge connects to the Siberian Shelf. Push this argument too far and you could find out that Russia owns Greenland!
Energy diversity.
Renewables are great sources of energy... But they are not perfect.
Fossil fuels have their problems, but they do complement the gaps that renewables have.
Renewables have the problem of portability. Some like wind and hydro electric needs to be located in the proper areas where they can get a reliable energy from. Others like solar do not offer 24/7 support. Batteries do not have the energy density that we get out of fossil fuel, and takes much longer to recharge.
Right now with our current technology I can see Renewables replacing many of the power plants out there. Which will do a big cut in greenhouse gas emissions. However cars will still need to be hybrid gas/electric either the Toyota Prius style or the Chevy Volt style.
The idea of moving the population to local cities where they can use public transportation especially in less dense areas like the United States, just won't happen. If you tell the population that they need to move from their houses which they have put a lot of money in, and live in an area the matches how they want to live and go to a crowed loud crime ridden city, will cause a lot of people to put a gun to your face, whether or not it is legal to have guns.
So really energy diversity is the key, the goal is to reduce emissions, not just cut them off until we can get better alternatives to a point where we will not need fossil fuel.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
That's not how international law about exclusive economic zones works, because there's not a convenient pole between every disputed area in the world (and why the pole anyway, what not say the center of the arctic ocean?). One doesn't carve out a brand new approach just for this one dispute. As much as I'm sure Russia would want them too, since they'd get half of the arctic ocean.
"We consider that six courts and an asylum claim are a rather odd way of returning to Sweden within a month."
"When people thought the earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the earth was spherical, they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together." -- Asimov