Arctic Ocean’s Resources Haunted By Five Countries

Greenland will host this week a meeting where 5 powerful nations will discuss the resources offered by the Arctic Ocean and how these resources are to be split up between them.

The countries to take part at this conference are Canada, Norway, Denmark, Russia and the United States.

The generating factor that gave birth to this race between the 5 countries is the US Geographical Survey’s discovery according to which the Arctic Ocean could hold a quarter of the world’s undiscovered gas and oil reserves. However, the meeting’s goal is for every country to get a piece of the cake and to avoid the erruption of possible angers, like the Russia episode last year when the nation planted a flag on the sea-bed beneath the North Pole.

The agenda will consist not only of territorial claims but also of cooperation over accidents, maritime security and oil spills.

But are the oil and gas more important than the future of our planet?

There is no longer a hidden truth that the rising temperatures are caused by global warming and can leave the Arctic ice-free in summer. Environmentalists are fighting to protect that part of the Earth, requesting an interdiction for military activity and mineral mining in the Arctic. Moreover, a group of eight environment ministers reunited on May 26 in Japan to find a solution for the global warming problem. Several animal species from that part of the world are under peril.

Should this be the way the cookie crumbles?

Andrea Toffan