Today's News, Tomorrow's Lesson - December 11, 2013

Darren Evans

This year it’s not just excited children who are looking expectantly
towards the North Pole; one of the world’s biggest economies is eyeing
the region too.

Canada is set to make a territorial claim on the North Pole in an
effort to assert its sovereignty in the Arctic region, which is rich in
resources such as oil and natural gas.

John Baird, the Canadian foreign affairs minister, said that his
government had asked scientists to work on a submission to the United
Nations arguing that the Pole was located on part of a continental
shelf controlled by Canada.

Mr. Baird said: “We are determined to ensure that all Canadians
benefit from the tremendous resources that are to be found in Canada’s
far north.”

A growing number of countries, including the US and Russia, are
looking to the Arctic as a source of natural resources and shipping
lanes but so far none has claimed the North Pole itself. The US
Geological Survey estimates that the region contains about 30 percent
of the world’s undiscovered natural gas and 15 percent of oil.

Canada has already applied to extend its Atlantic Ocean seabed
rights but now wants more time to prepare a claim that would extend 200
nautical miles beyond the North Pole.

The submission itself would not result in a binding decision from
the UN but would pave the way for future negotiations between competing
countries that could take many years to resolve.

Michael Byers, an expert on Arctic and international law at the
University of British Columbia, said the claim was more about politics
than economics. “We’re talking about the center of a large,
inhospitable ocean that is in total darkness for three months each
year, thousands of miles from any port,” he said.

“The water in the north pole is 12,000ft deep and will always be
covered by sea ice in the winter. It’s not a place where anyone is
going to be drilling for oil and gas. So it’s not about economic
stakes, it’s about domestic politics.”