Thread: The North pole belongs to Russia

What's your take on the Russians' claim that the arctic seabed around the North pole belongs to them. Their argument is that the region is an extension of their continental shelf (plus they planted a cute flag down there to prove the point).

What is (or should be) the policy regarding unclaimed (or international?) regions on Earth and in space. Does the Moon belong to the US?

If Russia really really really wants a huge section of inhospitable arctic seabed, covered by tons of ice...who cares. Do you? I don't. What're they gonna do with it? Go swimming?

I don't care right now. I probably will care, when they find the resources they are looking for (oil and gas)... and I suspect a lot of other countries will be interested, too.

Originally Posted by Wolf

If Russia really really really wants a huge section of inhospitable arctic seabed, covered by tons of ice...who cares. Do you? I don't. What're they gonna do with it? Go swimming?

Have you ever heard of "seward's icebox" a.k.a "seward's folly"?

I thought it was agreed that no one could own the poles, anyway?

Besides, if Russia wants to claim that it owns the North Pole because it's part of the same landmass, then America now owns Canada and Mexico. Ha.

if someone claims an inhospitable part of the world for their own, it usually boils down to mineral resources - gas or oil maybe ?

The Kremlin has long believed the territory belonged to Russia - it was marked as such on Soviet maps from the 1920s.

But in 1997, Russia ratified the United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Sea, which limits the five nations on the Arctic Ocean Russia, Norway, Canada, the United States (through Alaska) and Denmark (through Greenland) to 200 miles of territorial waters.


Map of the disputed region: Click to enlarge
But under the treaty, the five nations are allowed to file claims to a UN commission for greater territory if they can prove that their continental shelves are geographically linked to the Arctic seabed.
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...1/wpole101.xml

If they're taking responsibility for the poles, then can they please fix the magnetic field creep so my compass will be accurate again?