Friday, March 21, 2008 VANCOUVER- The region believed to have once been the land bridge across which the earliest human migration took place from Eurasia to the Americas promises today, as a result of climate change, to become a maritime conduit of increased global exchanges.This has the potential of bringing nations together for peace and development. It also has the potential for disputes and conflict. At this point, we have an opportunity to make a choice.
We are all stakeholders in what happens in the Arctic - environmentally, politically, militarily and in every other way - as the ice cover melts.
Before the modern "gold rush" for oil, gas, diamonds and minerals begins to cause tensions among the eight circumpolar countries - Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States - a global regime should be established over the Arctic to mitigate the effects of climate change and for the equitable use of its resources.
In terms of military security, a choice can be made between returning to the rivalries of the Cold War or a cooperative arrangement like the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, which has preserved the area around that opposite pole "exclusively for peaceful purposes." More >>>
