permaculture

[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

Antarctica and the Arctic: A polar primer for the new great game -
CSMonitor.com
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-Issues/2014/0112/Antarctica-and-the-Arctic-A-polar-primer-for-the-new-great-game
[this is a seven page article]
Antarctica and the Arctic: A polar primer for the new great game

Antarctica and the Arctic are the focus of global hunger for untapped
resources – and global warming has helped drive the polar rush.

By Douglas Fox <http://www.csmonitor.com/About/Staff/Douglas-Fox>,
Correspondent / January 12, 2014


ust after noon on Sept. 4, 2010, a squat, yellow-black cargo ship lumbered
out of the Norwegian port of Kirkenes. Naked ridges of glacially scarred
granite slid by on either side as the Nordic Barents motored toward the
open sea with 41,000 tons of iron ore locked in her belly. It might have
resembled a routine voyage to Western
Europe<http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Western+Europe>.
But the sense of normalcy vanished as the ship reached the mouth of the
fiord, a geographic and economic crossroads at the extreme northern edge of
Scandinavia.

Rather than proceeding forward toward
Europe<http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Europe>,
the Barents swung slowly to the right – to the east. The ore in its hold
was destined for smelters in China<http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/China>.
To get there, the ship would do what few others have attempted: take a
shortcut over the top of Asia <http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Asia>,
through 3,000 miles of Arctic seas haunted by drifting ice. It would be
escorted by a nuclear-powered icebreaker from
Russia<http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Russia>
.

RECOMMENDED: Polar globalization: What makes the North and South poles so
valuable?<http://www.csmonitor.com/Photo-Galleries/Infographics/Polar-globalization-What-makes-the-North-and-South-poles-so-valuable>

Similar pioneering scenes are unfolding at the planet's opposite pole, the
Antarctic. Each January at the height of the austral summer, fishing
vessels venture south into waters that would be impenetrable if not for an
accident of nature: Upwelling ocean water a couple of degrees above
freezing creates a sliver of ice-free water along the Victoria Land coast,
a keyhole that the fishing boats thread on their way to the world's
southernmost waters. Reaching those waters, they unfurl several miles of
cable with as many as 10,000 fishhooks into the sea. Just a few years ago,
the fishing vessels didn't even come here; now, the fish they catch are
served in white-tablecloth restaurants in Europe, Asia, and the Americas,
eaten by people unaware of their exotic origin.

The cargo and fishing vessels pushing farther north and south reflect the
rapid change both poles are undergoing. Once isolated from the rest of the
world, they are now the object of increasing global focus. At stake are
massive untapped energy sources in the north, the world's least-fished
ocean waters in the south, and precious metals turning up in places such as
Greenland <http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Greenland> and
Antarctica<http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Antarctica>
.

Global warming may have cracked open the door to the poles, but worldwide
hunger for resources is prying it wider, with greater force.

"It's globalization," says Lawson Brigham, a retired US Coast Guard
icebreaker captain and now professor of geography and Arctic policy at the
University of Alaska Fairbanks. "Higher commodity prices will drive
frontier development."

The geopolitical process that began centuries ago as the polar regions were
explored continues today with countries as diverse as China, Russia,
Ukraine<http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Ukraine>,
Britain <http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/United+Kingdom>, and
Chile<http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Chile>hovering to claim
territory or resources. This maneuvering, say experts,
will probably unfold without military conflict, but shaping the future of
the poles will nonetheless depend on strategic assets whose importance has
gone unrecognized.