the fight over the melted Arctic

http://www.upi.com/Emerging_Threats/2009/08/18/Canada-flies-NATO-flag-in-arctic-showdown/UPI-99631250613577/


Emerging Threats
Canada flies NATO flag in arctic showdown


It has all the trappings of the Cold War except a vituperative war of words, or dark hints of Armageddon. Canada's show of military might north of its icy shores is a flag-waving exercise to assert not only Canadian sovereignty but also NATO's rights over the arctic territory. The audience? Russian military in their full paraphernalia of hardware, also engaged in more or less similar pursuits.

Of all the nations currently ensconced in the arctic, Russia is the only power outside NATO or Western alliances. It is the only arctic neighbor Canada has had angry exchanges with in recent months.

At a NATO meeting in Iceland in January, former NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer warned, "The High North is going to require even more of the Alliance's attention in the coming years. As the ice-cap decreases, the possibility increases of extracting the High North's mineral wealth and energy deposits." He said NATO already had agreed on "a number of guiding principles for NATO's role in energy security" for Europe and the Western Hemisphere at large.

"The Arctic has become one of Canada's top priorities" since it defined a new Northern Strategy of stepped-up involvement in the north, says ISRIA.com political consultancy. And according to Global Research, Montreal, Canadian actions represent not only Canada's own concerns but also American and NATO aims in the arctic.

-snip-

Eight nations have interests in the arctic region -- Canada, Denmark through its control over Greenland, Finland, Iceland, Norway, the Russian Federation, Sweden and the United States.

-snip-

Critics of Prime Minister Stephen Harper have urged restraint on ministers engaged in inflammatory attacks on Russia, lest things get out of hand, Cold War-style.
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sigh

See

The ice around Severnaya Zemlya island is expected to melt soon. Even now, it is not very solid and breaking up.

See http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/ for a discussion of the summer melt published Aug 18.

The Northwest Passage through the Canadian north is still fairly solidly blocked this year.

Canada isn't about to take on the Russians, this is just chest-thumping for effect, and it's not winning us any friends.

Could be a good time for a leader that speaks Russian as well as French and English.