Canada Flexes Its Muscles in Dispute Over Arctic Wastes

[beetbox]

Canada flexes its muscles in dispute over Arctic wastes
By Francis Harris in Washington
(Filed: 22/08/2005)

Canadian warships were sailing towards the Arctic yesterday in the latest act of gunboat diplomacy over control of the frozen wastes there.

Ottawa has launched a series of Arctic sovereignty patrols to assert its territorial claims and fend off rivals, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the United States.

Its scramble for the Arctic is a consequence of global warming and the retreat of the polar ice. This has raised the prospect of once-inaccessible areas becoming available for oil and mineral extraction. It has also revived the dream of a "North-West Passage" for shipping, linking the Atlantic and Pacific.

(edit)

Canada and the US are at odds over control of the North-West Passage and the resource-rich Beaufort Sea, while Canada and Russia both claim overlapping parts of the Arctic continental shelf.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/08/22/wcan22.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/08/22/ixworld.html

[SteppingRazor]

1. I might as well be the first ugly American to say it...

oooOOOOoooOOO! Canadian warships! Scary!! ;)

Now where's mah American flag, and mah mom and mah apple pie and whatnot?

[achtung_circus]

7. Actually quite capable

Halifax-class frigate


Kingston-class costal defence vessel

Ice strengthened ships are needed.

[Sgent]

10. Very impressive

Unfortunately....this



Is the USS Ronald Reagan, and GWB is our commander in chief. :(

[getmeouttahere]

2. Go Canada!

and protest Cheney's visit to Alberta while you're at it!!!

[rodeodance]

3. gawd--leave it to the greedy crowd to see something positive out of

global warming.
WHOW>

.....Its scramble for the Arctic is a consequence of global warming and the retreat of the polar ice. This has raised the prospect of once-inaccessible areas becoming available for oil and mineral extraction. It has also revived the dream of a "North-West Passage" for shipping, linking the Atlantic and Pacific.

[rodeodance]

4. "Arctic sovereignty patrols"--umm.. wonder how big they are?

[TrogL]

5. It's about time

I emailed my MP about this last week.

I may be talking to the PM about this tonight (more later).

[Maple]

6. Then while you're at it

tell him to get our troops the hell out of Afghanistan and Haiti!

[mom cat]

8. Watch out Canada...Bush revenge knows no bounds!

[wli]

9. Bushler bringing life to Canadian Bacon?

Bizarre, but not entirely unanticipated. I thought more about potential Antarctic territorial disputes, though, in no small part to the large degree of overlapping in the overlapping claims.