The Arctic is warming up to seven times faster than the rest of the planet due to climate change, threatening the wildlife and the region’s stability. While the impact of melting ice in the Arctic on starving polar bears is often illustrated, new reserves of natural resources, including fish stocks and rare earth minerals needed for the green energy revolution, are being exposed.
This has led to a race to claim and exploit these resources. As the ice retreats, it is also easier to deploy modern warfare technology, with nations such as Russia, Canada, and the US building and operating new naval and air bases, including military facilities across the Arctic. Russia has claimed rights to minerals on the seabed as far north as the North Pole, a claim that is being disputed by other nations. Merchant ships can now use the two new sea routes opened up across the top of Canada and Russia, which significantly cuts the time and cost of shipping from Asia to Europe.
Climate change in the Arctic is having severe consequences, and its melting ice is putting peace and the wildlife at risk. The melting of the ice has also exposed new reserves of natural resources, which is leading to a race for ownership and exploitation by various nations.
There is no comprehensive agreement on who owns what in the Arctic, making it easier for nations to build and operate new naval and air bases, as well as military facilities across the region. Russia has claimed rights to minerals on the seabed, including those as far north as the North Pole, which is being contested by other nations, as the Arctic seabed has never been properly surveyed to establish what is or isn’t a continental shelf. As a result, tensions are brewing between nations, and the future of the international rules-based order is looking increasingly tattered.
The Arctic’s melting ice has opened up two new sea routes, significantly cutting the time and cost of shipping from Asia to Europe, but this has also brought its own set of problems. Canada has jurisdiction over much of the Northwest Passage, while Russia’s concern with the Northern Sea route around Siberia is more about military and economic control.
Iceland, which relies on other NATO allies for defense, is strategically vital to controlling free movement to and from the Arctic. The melting of the ice has also made it easier to deploy modern warfare technology, with nations such as Russia, Canada, and the US building and operating new naval and air bases, including military facilities across the Arctic.
SOURCE: Ref-http://David Baillie
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