Mini-submarines to claim Arctic Ocean floor for Russia BY DOUGLAS BIRCH The Associated Press
MOSCOW — Russian scientists hope to plunge to the seabed beneath the North Pole in the next few days in a miniature sub and plant a titanium capsule containing the Russian flag, symbolically claiming much of the Arctic Ocean floor for Moscow. Thick sea ice threatens to thwart the expedition, an engineer with Russia’s premier polar research institute said Friday. But if the effort succeeds, it could mark the official start of a very cold diplomatic war for the Arctic, one of the Earth’s last energy frontiers. A convoy consisting of a research vessel and an icebreaker, and led by Russia’s most famous polar explorer, set sail Tuesday from Murmansk toward the North Pole — shadowed, according to Russian TV reports, by at least one Norwegian military aircraft. Today, Russian researchers expect to perform test dives to depths of over a mile in two miniature subs near Franz Josef Land, a Russian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. The expedition, supported by the Kremlin, was dispatched to buttress Russia’s claims to more than 460,000 square miles of the Arctic shelf — an area that by some estimates contains 10 billion tons of oil and gas deposits. Experts say the effort is part of Russia’s long-range efforts to expand its energy empire. Arkady Soshnikov, chief engineer of Russia’s Arctic and Antarctic Scientific Research Institute in St. Petersburg, told The Associated Press this year’s unusually thick sea ice could hamper the expedition. While the nuclear-powered icebreaker Rossiya is capable of pushing through most pack ice, Soshnikov said, the research vessel Akademik Fyodorov may have trouble following. Still, the current plan calls for the mini-subs to descend to the seabed under the North Pole on Monday or Tuesday, he said. Despite this summer’s conditions near the pole, the area of the Arctic Ocean covered by ice has been shrinking since the early 20th century and the change has accelerated in the last decade, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Some scientists blame the shrinkage on the effects of human-driven climate change. As the Arctic’s ice recedes, its waters are becoming more navigable — and its riches more accessible to a resource-hungry world. The largely unexplored Arctic seabed could contain vast oil and gas deposits; the recoverable petroleum reserves of several countries that claim the shores of the northern polar ocean — including the U.S., Russia and Norway — are rapidly being exhausted. About 100 scientists on the Akademik Fyodorov are looking for evidence that the Lomonosov Ridge — a 1,240 mile underwater mountain ridge that crosses the polar region and connects Russia and Greenland — is a geologic extension of Russia, and therefore can be claimed by Russia under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea. President Vladimir Putin considers the expedition “very important,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the AP. “Being a unique scientific expedition it is of course supported by the president.” The Kremlin, he added, is well aware of the territorial implications of the research. “Besides being of scientific importance, of course we will wait and see the results of that expedition, whether they determine that the bottom is a continuation” of the Lomonosov Ridge, he said.
This is probably a really dumb question, but why the heck wasn't the United States there first? Did they not know about this 'rich in oil' area? That is just what we need....to be dependent on oil from the Arabs and the Russians! They have us right by the you know what's!
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It wouldn't do any good to lay claim to any oil reserves under the ice because the green weenies wouldn't let the oil companies drill there anyway for fear of hurting something.
Capitalism....someone has to want to do, be able to make $$ on it, own it and control it, and want to die for it.......
In Russia (socialism) they just take the peoples $$ and do it....for Mother Russia.........
Since the colapse of the Soviet Union in 1992, Russia has a capialist based economy. From what I have read, many people believe that the people's quality of life would be better off under communism because of the consistancy of communism, it seems they can't handle the fluctuation of the free markets. Much like our state and federal emloyee's, no matter how the markets are, their pensions and pay stay pretty consistant, regadless how the stockmarket is performing. It must be comforting, especially after this weeks market performance. Where the dow lost about 500 points. I'm sure our retired Rotterdam police officer Collins is still recieving his 90k a year pensions, as my 401K lost about 6% of it's worth in 1 week, and my school and property taxes go up 10% to 15%.
New York is similar to the old Soviet Union in the way that if you work for mother New York you're taken care of, while the rest of the residents are brain washed to pay more taxes for the common good, yet we see know return on our involuntary contribution.
"Broad-minded is just another way of saying a fellow is too lazy to form an opinion."-Will Rogers-
They see no return on their involuntary contribution either....their motto--"atleast we have vodka".....again it's the 'atleast we have' arguement......
"In NYS atleast I am allowed on the merry-go-round", and for some reason we keep voluntarily, voting ideas like this into action......I dont get it....although I'm sure we could learn a good lesson from New Orleans......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Expedition aims to claim Arctic seabed MOSCOW — A Russian expedition aiming to claim vast swaths of the Arctic Ocean seabed reached the North Pole on Wednesday, and scientists immediately began preparing to send two mini-submarines under the ice to mark the sea floor with a Russian flag. The Rossiya atomic icebreaker plowed a path to the pole through a sheet of multiyear ice, clearing the way for the Akademik Fedorov research ship to follow, said Sergei Balyasnikov, a spokesman for the Arctic and Antarctic research institute that prepared the expedition. The voyage, led by polar explorer and Russian legislator Artur Chilingarov, has some scientific goals, including the study of Arctic plants and animals. But its chief goal appears to be advancing Russia’s political and economic influence by strengthening its legal claims to the huge gas and oil deposits thought to lie beneath the Arctic sea floor.
I wonder how many Russians will lose their life through this process? Obviously, I hope none...but this seems like a dangerous, major undertaking!
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