The Great Game Moves North

By: Micah Bacheller

This article by Scott G. Borgerson is about the great relatively unexplored wonders of the Arctic Circle. Global warming is taking its toll, and in the summer, the northern seas are beginning to melt. This allows for new trade routes for countries that have boarders on the northern seas. The major players are Russia, Norway, Japan and the USA, among others.
More than finding new routes and claiming new territories, these countries want the natural resources that are still to be found there. Scientists say that 13% of the worlds oil is in the arctic circle, and also 30% of the worlds natural gas.
This poses two major problems. The first being that territories for each country are not specifically drawn, so the boundaries are not exact. Who gets to drill where? Russia is taking over in terms of getting their technology and boats together. They are the first to have a floating nuclear power plant. Also, their navy has begun to patrol the northern waters for the first time since the cold war.
The second problem is that the USA is barely doing anything to keep up with the melting ice. The American ice breaker fleet is very old, and the current budget plan allows no funds for new boats. There is no coalition with Canada on initiatives to explore more of the arctic.