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Deja vu — Judith Apter Klinghoffer

Judith Apter Klinghoffer

RACE FOR ARCTIC RESOURCES

It is in a Delhi paper that I read Doug Mellgren's article Climate change sparks race to claim resources. Apparently, Canada and Denmark are on a major collision course over an arctic rock:

Barren and uninhabited, Hans Island is very hard to find on a map.
Yet these days the Frisbee-shaped rock in the Arctic is much in demand — so much so that Canada and Denmark have both staked their claim to it with flags and warships.
The reason: an international race for oil, fish, diamonds and shipping routes, accelerated by the impact of global warming on Earth's frozen north.

The flag war is reminiscent of one that has been raging in Spratly Islands between Brunei, China, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines. Taiwan has recently decided to use to turtles as means to strengthen its claim. I also recall a 1992 BBC drama positing a war between the major powers over arctic resources in which the US and the EU are fighting on opposite sides. As Andy Markowits so convincingly details in Uncouth Nation, European anti-Americanism far predates the war on terror and the BBC salivating over an European - American war is par for the course.

Fortunately for the rest of us, I believe that the Marxist are again off the mark. Just as 20th century wars were not fought over resources, so neither will 21st century ones and those who believe that possession of strategic resources will protect them should remember the fate of king cotton and king rubber. Personally, I am an agnostic when it comes to climate change. I have difficulty trusting people who cannot predict accurately tomorrow's weather to predict accurately the weather in the next 20, 30 or 50 years. The matter is just too complex. Moreover, all linear projection are always wrong. Does that mean we should not try to limit our carbon emissions? Absolutely not. Fighting climate change is the most politically correct way of describing the emerging consensus that the time has come to put an end to the power of "king oil." So, go, climate changers go. You are more useful than you know. BUT I, for one, would not invest my retirement funds in arctic resource exploration just yet if ever.

Posted on Wednesday, March 28, 2007 at 2:25 AM | Comments (0) | Return

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