The Arctic region is what CNN calls “one of the planet’s most fragile and pristine ecosystems,” providing home to polar bears, foxes, wolves, and migrating birds such as geese and ducks (not to mention mythical elves, flying reindeer and a jolly man in a red suit).
Now the region is almost literally under fire, as a number of countries vie for ownership to the Arctic circle and the untapped fossil fuels that lay underneath layers of ice. In 2007, a Russian submarine even went so far as to plant an underwater flag 14,000 feet below the North Pole in an attempt to stake claim of the “land” (OIL).
One problem the region is facing is melting ice and rising water levels, resulting in smaller ice caps. Rather than show concern for this environmental problem, neighboring nations are excited at the prospect of easier to reach resources, as well as shorter and cheaper travel routes between Asia and North America.
Antarctica is protected by a treaty that prohibits nations from making territorial claims, but no such agreement exists for the Arctic. With no clear lines, countries like Russian, Canada, the United States, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, and Finland are all peaked with interest over who has the rights to oil drilling and shipping lanes.
Unfortunately, no one is jumping in to take responsibility for the environmental problems plaguing the region, including why the ice is melting. Groups in the United States, however, have protested drilling off the Alaskan coast due to the impact on polar bear habitats.
Feuding over resources instead of saving an ecosystem in peril? That is pretty Bitter.
