It's cold - but it's mine. I say so...

The intention of the Russian expedition was not simply to bolster national pride in achieving the goal of placing a marker at this remote location, indeed the flag left under the ice and water had another purpose – a claim to a large chunk of the seabed in the Arctic Ocean.

International agreements are already in place prohibiting claims by countries in both the Arctic and Antarctic regions. However, Russian president Vladimir Putin has announced that his country will attempt to claim and take control of a massive area greater than 1 million square kilometres in size. While there are processes in place to determine which country, if any, may have a justifiable claim to the Arctic, it appears that Russia is not above stunts similar to the manners of two year old children: if it looks like mine, it’s mine - if I’ve touched it, it’s mine – and of course, if it’s yours, it’s mine. Certainly there must be better ways of showing international leadership and settling disputes regarding land and property than grabbing it in this manner? And even if such a process to divide unclaimed parcels of the planet did exist – should it? Why should individual nation states be granted sole rights to exploit newly acquired territory – could not a non-governmental, internationally managed organisation be formed to share out the wealth of the earth in a fair and equitable manner to all nations and all people on the planet?

While the Russian media stunt has prompted a volley of dismissive comments from a number of countries, there are, in fact legitimate claims under international law which can be made to the Arctic region. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) allows for the possibility in which a country may be able to secure rights to underwater territory reaching far beyond it’s 200-mile territorial limit if it can prove that the area is in some way geologically linked to it’s continental shelf – the Siberian shelf in the Arctic Ocean is the world’s largest, stretching 1500 kilometres in width. As well, four other countries have Arctic coastlines, Canada, the U.S.A., Norway and Denmark – and all are interested in securing subsurface rights in the Arctic. Russia may attempt to claim a large chunk of the Arctic by arguig that an underwater feature called the Lomonosov Ridge starts in Russian territory and stretches to the North Pole. Countries who have signed UCLOS have 10 years in which to make claims – Russia signed in 1997 therefore it must establish it’s claim by this year, 2007.

There are other unclaimed regions of the ‘high seas’ on earth. However, any interest in countries grabbing up these regions is dwarfed by the current Arctic debate. The most relevant reason on why the polar debate takes a front seat is due to the large amounts of unclaimed continental shelf jutting into the Arctic region. The continental shelf is the relatively shallow boundry between a the part of a continent above the water and the much deeper ocean. One of the characteristics of the shelf is that it is made up of geologically old material – older than the oceanic crust which is found farther from shore.

Still, so what if the continental shelf is old material – why bother with it if it’s only interesting and important to academics such as geologists and fossil hunters?