Revealed: the secret battle for the riches of the Arctic
NICK COBBING/ GREENPEACE
The melting of the polar ice has been disastrous for wildlife but opens up new opportunities to exploit natural resources
As the eight Arctic nations met in Greenland yesterday, cables released by WikiLeaks gave insight into the battle for control of the world's least explored region and the resources that lie beneath its icy waters.
The cables show that Washington has an eye on the eventual independence of Greenland, a sparsely populated territory which functions as a protectorate of Denmark, and is looking at ways to strengthen its standing in the territory. "With Greenlandic independence glinting on the horizon, the US has a unique opportunity to shape the circumstances in which an independent nation may emerge," said
one dispatch from US diplomats in 2007. "We have real security and growing economic interests in Greenland."
An international study released last week projected that world sea levels could rise up to 1.6 metres over the next 90 years. These projections have prompted calls to increase action to reverse climate change, but have also raised speculation about how the resources of the Arctic can best be retrieved.
The region is believed to hold about a quarter of the world's undiscovered oil and gas reserves, and environmentalists say the thought of such riches is leading the Arctic countries to lose sight of longer-term climate issues.
"Instead of seeing the melting of the Arctic ice cap as a spur to action on climate change, the leaders of the Arctic nations are instead investing in military hardware to fight for the oil beneath it," said the Greenpeace campaigner Ben Ayliffe. "They're preparing to fight to extract the very fossil fuels that caused the melting in the first place."
Russia has the largest amount of Arctic coastline, and has a fleet of military and civilian icebreakers used on routes that traverse the Arctic. While other Arctic countries have small villages or research stations in their far northern reaches, Russia has major cities such as Murmansk inside the Arctic Circle.
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May 13, 2011