BS: Polar news...

Subject: BS: Polar news...
From: beardedbruce
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 02:32 PM

Russia to sink flag to Arctic Sea floor in oil, land grab

Story Highlights
Scientists plan for two submarines to dive 13,200 feet to drop capsule with flag

Biggest challenge for submarine crews is avoiding being trapped beneath ice

Scientists studying whether underwater mountain range is connected to Russia

U.S., Canada, Denmark also amid plans to stake claim to Arctic oil reserves

   
MOSCOW, Russia (AP) -- An expedition aimed at strengthening Russia's claim to much of the oil and gas wealth beneath the Arctic Ocean reached the North Pole on Wednesday, and preparations immediately began for two mini-submarines to drop a capsule containing a Russian flag to the sea floor.


Akademik Fedorov is carrying about 100 scientists in a bid to stake Moscow's claim to the Arctic sea bed.

The Rossiya icebreaker had plowed a path to the pole through an unbroken sheet of multiyear ice, clearing the way for the Akademik Fedorov research ship to follow, said Sergei Balyasnikov, a spokesman for the Arctic and Antarctic research institute that prepared the expedition.

"For the first time in history people will go down to the sea bed under the North Pole," Balyasnikov told The Associated Press. "It's like putting a flag on the moon."

Russian scientists hope to dive in two mini-submarines beneath the pole to a depth of more than 13,200 feet, and drop a metal capsule containing the Russian flag on the sea bed.

Balyasnikov said the dive was expected to start Thursday morning and last for several hours.

The voyage, led by noted polar explorer and Russian legislator Artur Chilingarov, has some scientific goals, including the study of Arctic plants and animals. But its chief goal appears to be advancing Russia's political and economic influence by strengthening its legal claims to the gas and oil deposits thought to lie beneath the Arctic sea floor.

The symbolic gesture, along with geologic data being gathered by expedition scientists, is intended to prop up Moscow's claims to more than 460,000 square miles of the Arctic shelf -- which by some estimates may contain 10 billion tons of oil and gas deposits.

Russia could claim Arctic region
The expedition reflects an intense rivalry between Russia, the United States, Canada and other nations whose shores face the northern polar ocean for the Arctic's icebound riches.

About 100 scientists aboard the Akademik Fyodorov are looking for evidence that the Lomonosov Ridge -- a 1,240-mile underwater mountain range that crosses the polar region -- is a geologic extension of Russia, and therefore can be claimed by it under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The subs will collect specimens of Arctic plants and animals and videotape the dives.

The biggest challenge, scientists say, will be for the mini-sub crews to return to their original point of departure to avoid being trapped under a thick ice crust.

"They have all the necessary navigation equipment to ensure safety," Balyasnikov said.

Denmark hopes to prove that the Lomonosov Ridge is an extension of the Danish territory of Greenland, not Russia. Canada, meanwhile, plans to spend $7 billion to build and operate up to eight Arctic patrol ships in a bid to help protect its sovereignty.

The U.S. Congress is considering an $8.7 billion budget reauthorization bill for the U.S. Coast Guard that includes $72.96 million to operate and maintain the nation's three existing polar icebreakers. The bill also authorizes the Coast Guard to construct two new vessels.

Subject: RE: BS: Polar news...
From: Barry Finn
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 05:18 PM

A bear saying to the seal, "There goes the neighborhood".

Can't imagine what the fall out on this will be, & wait till we hear the spin, oh the shit will fly. Pass me my hip boots, please.

Barry

Subject: RE: BS: Polar news...
From: SINSULL
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 05:33 PM

This can only go from bad to worse. Does anyone have the technology to get this oil out? And what safegurads will be needed to protect the area? Screw the Polar Bears - I am talking about melting ice caps and the like.

Subject: RE: BS: Polar news...
From: Amos
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 05:48 PM

I think this might just be a complete crock; as far as I recall those regions have all been covered by international treaties in the past; it is not as though they were unknown territory.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Polar news...
From: SharonA
Date: 02 Aug 07 - 03:41 AM

Do "international waters" extend down to the sea floor? Or only the surface and sub-surface down to a certain depth?

Subject: RE: BS: Polar news...
From: GUEST,CrazyEddie
Date: 02 Aug 07 - 09:14 AM

"...have all been covered by international treaties in the past..."

Well, that's alright then, 'cos no-one would ever break an international treaty, would they?

Subject: RE: BS: Polar news...
From: Bill D
Date: 02 Aug 07 - 11:03 AM

"Screw the Polar Bears".....I know that joke...

never mind...

I think that it should not ne ALLOWED to claim places on the ocean bed in situations like this....and that NO ONE should be even thinking of trying to extract oil under those conditions.

Whistling down a well? Yeah, I suppose so...

Subject: RE: BS: Polar news...
From: beardedbruce
Date: 09 Aug 07 - 09:33 AM

Canadian PM vows to defend Arctic

Story Highlights
Canadian prime minister pays three-day visit to Arctic to assert sovereignty

Visit comes a week after Russia staked claim to swathes of the region

Spokesman: Canadian government has an "aggressive Arctic agenda"
Next Article in World »



   
TORONTO, Ontario (AP) -- Canada's prime minister has begun a three-day trip to the Arctic in an effort to assert sovereignty over the region a week after Russia symbolically staked a claim to the North Pole by sending submarines.

Although Stephen Harper's visit has been planned for months, it has taken on new importance since the Russian subs dived 2½ miles to the Arctic shelf and planted their country's flag in a titanium capsule.

"The Russians sent a submarine to drop a small flag at the bottom of the ocean. We're sending our prime minister to reassert Canadian sovereignty," a senior government official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because his language was undiplomatic.

Five countries -- Canada, Russia, the United States, Norway and Denmark -- are competing to secure subsurface rights to the Arctic seabed. One study by the U.S. Geological Survey estimates the Arctic has as much as 25 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas.

Harper, who has pledged to spend billions defending Canada's sovereignty over the Arctic, is expected to announce the location of a planned military deep water port later in the week.

"Our government has an aggressive Arctic agenda," said Dimitri Soudas, the prime minister's spokesman. "Economic development -- unleashing the resource-based potential of the North, environmental protection -- protecting the unique Northern environment, national sovereignty -- protecting our land, airspace and territorial waters."

Last month, Harper announced that six to eight new patrol ships will be built to guard the Northwest Passage sea route in the Arctic, which the United States insists does not belong to Canada.

U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins has criticized Harper's promise to defend the Arctic, calling the Northwest Passage "neutral waters."

Harper said last month the deep water port will serve as an operating base for naval ships and also will be used for commercial purposes. He might also announce a military training center in the Arctic.

"Canada has a choice when it comes to defending our sovereignty over the Arctic. We either use it or lose it. And make no mistake, this government intends to use it," Harper said.

The disputed Northwest Passage runs below the North Pole from the Atlantic to the Pacific through the Arctic Archipelago.

As global warming melts the passage -- which is navigable only during a slim window in the summer -- the waters are exposing unexplored resources, and becoming an attractive shipping route. Commercial ships can shave off some 2,480 miles from Europe to Asia compared with the current routes through the Panama Canal.

Canada also wants to assert its claim over Hans Island at the entrance to the Northwest Passage.

The half-square-mile rock, one-seventh the size of New York's Central Park, is wedged between Canada's Ellesmere Island and Danish-ruled Greenland, and for more than 20 years has been a subject of unusually bitter exchanges between the two NATO allies.

In 1984, Denmark's minister for Greenland affairs, Tom Hoeyem, caused a stir when he flew in on a chartered helicopter, raised a Danish flag on the island, buried a bottle of brandy at the base of the flagpole and left a note saying: "Welcome to the Danish island."

The dispute erupted again two years ago when former Canadian Defense Minister Bill Graham set foot on the rock while Canadian troops hoisted the Maple Leaf flag.

Denmark sent a letter of protest to Ottawa, while Canadians and Danes took out competing Google ads, each proclaiming sovereignty over the rock 680 miles south of the North Pole.

Some Canadians even called for a boycott of Danish pastries.

Canada and the United States dismissed the Russian flag-planting as legally meaningless.

But Russian researchers also plan to use the dive to help map the Lomonosov ridge, a 1,240-mile underwater mountain range that crosses the polar region. Moscow claims the ridge is an extension of the Eurasian continent, and therefore part of Russia's continental shelf under international law.

The United Nations has rejected Moscow's claim, citing a lack of evidence, but Russia is set to resubmit it in 2009. If recognized, the claim would give Russia control of more than 460,000 square miles, representing almost half of the Arctic seabed