Who does the Arctic belong to?

The Arctic is the most northerly part of the planet, where the average temperature of the hottest month is below 10 ° C. Countries that are close to the Arctic are fiercely fighting over the right to exploit their resources. So who owns the Arctic?

It's in theArctic that is the North Pole. The region as a whole is included in the polar Circle. In winter, the area is completely covered with ice and the temperature reaches -60 ° C.

During the season the coldest of the year, the vegetation that dominates the region is the tundra. However, in slightly warmer areas it is possible to find birch and willow trees. Regarding the wildlife, the Arctic has only a few cash such as polar bears, muskoxen and arctic seals.

While the South Pole has land, theArctic is actually a reserve ofpure water frozen. There is no Earth north of Asia, Europe and North America. This is why the law governing this area is the law of the sea, which consists of an international treaty of 1982 signed jointly by all the countries having territories beyond the Arctic Circle.

The law of the sea states that each country has the right to control up to 200 miles from its coast, which equates to 370 km. The countries concerned are Russia, the United States (through Alaska), Canada, Norway and Denmark (through Greenland). But the question is how to determine where the shore begins. The country that can prove that its crust submerged exceeds 200 miles sees its territory counted from this point.

Russia has repeatedly claimed thousands of square kilometers in the Arctic. In 2007, she even planted a Russian flag at the bottom of the polar waters, 4,261 meters deep. The United Nations Convention has never granted him these claims.

What is in the Arctic?

The great interest of the nations around the Arctic Circle is the large amount of oil and of natural gas concentrated in this frozen part of the Earth. The Arctic holds a third of Canada's reserveshydrocarbons of the planet, including natural gas and the equivalent of 400 billion barrels of oil.

However, there are significant engineering difficulties in carrying out the extraction and it is impossible to live in these remote and cold areas. Another difficulty is that during the summer it Sun all day, while in winter it is constantly dark.

Despite everything, since 2018, Russian teams have started work to extract natural gas in the Arctic. It built power plants liquefaction, airports and deep water ports, accessible to boats with reinforced hulls, ensuring the transport of extracted gas.

Who manages the Arctic?

The Council ofArctic was created in 2006 to distribute responsibility for the melting frozen fresh water, not to divide the spaces of the pole itself. It is an intergovernmental body, with a rotating presidency, which works on the environmental, economic and social aspects of sustainable development in the Arctic region.

As a result of the discovery of resources in the Arctic, countries whose territories border the Arctic Circle have started to fight more fiercely over the right to exploit the resources of the region. However, despite all the measures that the Arctic Council can adopt, theapplication of its recommendations is left to the goodwill of each state. This Council was formed by a declaration, so it cannot compel States to take specific measures. However, the global warming harms this region and it is the result of activities such as the combustion extraction from fossils, already practiced by Russia in Arctic.

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Stroll in the Arctic, a fragile ice world, with Florian Ledoux Taken on the ground or from a drone, these superb images show the magnificent landscapes of the Far North. The photographer Florian Ledoux admired them and was able to get close to the animals adapted to this region. It is fragile because warming, more important than elsewhere, makes the ice roll back while humans are preparing to make it a convenient seaway.

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