There May Be Blood

A new map shows conflicting claims to Arctic territories—and its billions of gallons of oil

By Molika Ashford Posted 08.07.2008 at 10:14 am 6 Comments

Map of the Disunion For a high-res PDF of the map, launch it here. International Boundaries Research Unit

As the earth warms and our hunger for oil and other natural resources grows, the Arctic—once a peaceful repose for Santa—is already a crisscross of territorial claims that could get even more complicated in coming years according to a new map drawn up by researchers at Durham University, who say it is the only geographically accurate map of its kind.

The map shows how six countries—The U.S., Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Russia—have laid claims, or could extend further claims, edging into the Arctic region. Current claims are drawn out, as are solidly agreed boundaries. But more importantly, the chart includes a projection of the areas that nations may claim in the future.

According to the USGS, the Arctic is home to around 90 billion barrels of oil, and a fifth of the world’s recoverable resources in total. Last year Russia planted a flag under the north pole, and their foray north highlights a touchy issue: the legal right of a nation over its continental shelf—the underwater lip of land that skirts each continent. Russia claims their shelf extends under the artic ice and so should their rights. But the true boundaries are in dispute, and according to the Durham map, may continue to be.

Via Science Daily

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6 Comments

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luke123abc

08/07/08 at 11:20 am

why is it that even though we know this oil is one of the causes for global warming, why do we hunger it more? and better yet why do governments not take much action. i fell as though they try to hide it up. a couple of weeks ago i read an article about cheney destroying some pages of a report that had information in it about the heath concerns about global warming. like seriously, everyone talks about going green, then why isnt it happening?

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Woodrow

08/08/08 at 12:24 pm

Oil does not cause global warming, the sun does. Just because you read some moonbat website account of Evil Dick Cheney shredding documents does not mean governments are ignoring the issue (or even that anthropogenic global warming actually exisits). On the contrary, governments are exploiting the issue in order to exert more control of economic activities. The point of the article is that there is oil under the North Pole and that this will have to be divvied up, either by agreement or by war.

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jwbales

08/08/08 at 6:13 pm

Hopefully, environmentalists and global warming kooks will not prevent the extraction of these energy resources.

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Myetus

08/08/08 at 11:40 pm

This is a complex issue that needs to be addressed by negotiations, not war. I just want to point out that 90% of the scientific world agree that there IS a global warming that is caused by humans mainly by burning oil.
You can put your head in the sand, but this is the 21st century, the politicians, the governments need to wake up and the fake scientists need to stop their lies. Hopefully, the general public will kick the crazy warmongerers out before they would go to war even with Russia for something that is already out of date.

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dallasfoto

08/10/08 at 8:24 am

Regardless of how many trillions of barrels of oil there are out there, it will eventually run out. And regardless of the precise causes of global warming, this nation must begin to wean itself off of cars powered only by internal combustion engines. We must begin to look beyond the next fiscal quarter of profits and to the long range future. I doubt that we will ever learn. Jimmy Carter tried in the late seventies and in walks a B movie bad cowboy actor and made us all feel warm and fuzzy and set up an era of ignoring our energy situation. Americans are fat, stupid, and lazy and do not want to hear about peak oil or global warming because, god forbid, they might have to sacrifice some of their couch potato comforts.

I now ride an electric assist hybrid bicycle to work every day. I got it a Walmart for $350. It gets a carbon equivalent of 1800 miles per gallon. My commute is very short but there are many others in this area of Dallas who could also do this. Regardless of where we are with oil or where we are going with oil, it feels very good to say "gotohell, Exxon" every morning when I go to work. Maybe I am only one small insignificant person but I am getting 1800 per gallon instead of 25.

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