They keep pushing and pushing. Before we get to today's headline story here's part of a 2019 post:
"Who Owns the Arctic?"
Well, there was this last June:
Canada Makes A Move In The Arctic, Claims The North Pole: "Santa is Canadian eh" which had a few other claims we had gathered:
...Russia planted a flag on the seabed at the North Pole
(and were promptly reminded it was no longer the 16th century and things were done differently these days)
And the U.S. even disputes Canada's claim to the Northwest Passage much less the Pole, meanwhile submitting photographic evidence of humanitarian aid at the Pole:
The Canadians have done this before, also citing spurious "evidence":
"Santa Claus lives and pays taxes in Canada, government affirms"But this is just an extension of Canadian perfidy in other areas.
See also:
False Bacon of Hope: "150 Years of Canadian Culinary History"
The Danes, Norway and Sweden have made individual claims to the Arctic and may go full Viking one of these days with a joint claim.
Britain has been quiet about the Arctic despite claiming a chunk of Antarctic seabed, more on that after the jump....
Two Russian vessels have collected new data in the Arctic Ocean between Canada, Greenland and the North Pole - far from Russia’s existing claim.It happened between August and October last year. Through several days, Russia’s large nuclear icebreaker “50 Let Pobedy” (50 Years of Victory) plowed through the polar sea ice between the North Pole and the northernmost reaches of Greenland and Canada. The speed most likely is no more than 3-4 knots.
Despite the climate crisis, the ice in this region can still be several years old, thick as a man is tall and tougher than oak.
The icebreaker systematically clears open tracks in the ice in honor of the vessel trailing it, the “Akademik Fedorov”. The lesser, but ice-enforced vessel methodically sucks up data about the seabed with an advanced multibeam echosounder embedded in its hull.
Onboard the ship Russian technicians, if they do what they have done before, translate the data into colourful computer-visuals of the seabed’s majestic contours.
Focus is on the Lomonosov Ridge, the impressive subsea mountain range that runs from Russia across the North Pole and onwards towards Greenland and Canada. The ridge pushes 3700 meter tall peaks upwards from the seabed which is otherwise flat as a pancake, and the nature of the connection between the ridge and the landmasses at either end will determine who has the rights to what the seabed may hide of oil, gas and minerals.
Consistent rumors about the goal of this ambitious Russian mission can now be verified: The two vessels were harvesting data about the seabed, because Russia is contemplating a revised, enlarged submission to the UN’s Commission on the Limit of the Continental Shelf (CLCS)....
....MUCH MORE
Speaking of the big icebreaker it appears that it plowed a channel for the LNG tanker Christophe de Margerie, down into the Bering Strait and back into the Chukchi Sea.
The two ships are now approx. 1.5 nautical miles apart.
If interested see "LNG Tanker Embarks on First Ever Mid-winter Voyage on Northern Sea Route"
Meanwhile down south there is still some unclaimed area on Antarctica but you should probably move fast, Brazil and France already have claims and it can't be long before Nigeria jumps into the action. From a 2007 post:
Brazil, Norway claim Antarctica; Ireland-Bay of Biscay
As we said last week:
Britain to claim a million square km of Antarctica: Here We Go Again
When I saw this yesterday I thought there was some material for "The Onion" in here somewhere. No need. The real headlines are pretty good.Now come reports Ireland, Norway, France, Australia. Spain and Brazil have claims too. From the Daily Mail's This is London:
(Does anyone else see Mickey Mouse?)
The Foreign Office has already submitted a joint claim with France, Spain and the Irish Republic for part of the Bay of Biscay.
And there are talks with Iceland, Ireland and Denmark on a joint claim in the Hattan-Rockall area off Scotland, and a further claim to extend around the Falklands, South Georgia and Ascension Island....MORE
