And so began the “Resource Wars”

Source: CNN.com

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that 90 billion barrels of oil, 44 billion barrels of natural gas liquids and 1,670 trillion cubic feet of natural gas are recoverable in the frozen region north of the Arctic Circle.

And the fight over who owns those resources may turn out to be the most important territorial dispute of this century. Russia, Canada, the United States, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Finland all have a stake in the Arctic’s icy real estate.

But both the exploration, and the likely drilling at the top of the Earth, have scientists deeply concerned. One reason: Global warming has hit the Arctic’s plant and animal life ferociously. The stresses and possible pollution caused by drilling only increase the risks.

“The ecosystem that is there has been protected by thousands of years of ice. Even if there was no territorial dispute, the ice is going away,” said oceanographer David Carlson, director of the International Polar Year’s Program Office.

The International Polar Year (http://www.ipy.org/) is a global scientific study focused on the Arctic and the Antarctic from March 2007 to March 2009.

Arctic sea ice is usually 1 to 3 meters, or as much as 9 feet, thick. It grows during autumn and winter and shrinks in spring and summer. Scientists have monitored sea ice conditions for 50 years.

The disappearance of the ice in the past decade is astounding, climate scientists say.

“We’ve been seeing a retreat year after year,” said Marika Holland, an oceanographer with the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. “The sea ice loss we observed in the summer of 2007 was shocking.”

Soon there may be no sea ice anywhere in the Arctic during some months of the year.

Although environmentalists are concerned by this melting trend, shipping and energy companies are salivating at the prospect of smaller ice caps, which makes Arctic drilling and commerce easier. Cargo ships may be able to travel from Asia to North America more cheaply and efficiently, for example.

Diplomats, politicians and oil company executives are feuding over who owns what under the ice. But the real power players might be the geologists who evaluate undersea land formations.

Unlike Antarctica, which has a treaty that prohibits territorial claims, there is no agreement for the vast expanse of the Arctic. So questions about drilling rights and shipping lanes, let alone who bears responsibility for environmental damage, are somewhat murky.

According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, countries are entitled to exclusive economic zones up to 200 miles from their shores. Some countries with a stake in the Arctic’s riches are trying to extend that zone, some in more brazen ways than others.

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