Canada 'to reclaim Arctic waters' ( Hope for Global Warming to remove ICE)

BBC ^ | Tuesday, 10 July 2007, 10:57 GMT 11:57 UK | Ian Gunn BBC News, Vancouver

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Canada 'to reclaim Arctic waters'

By Ian Gunn BBC News, Vancouver

Stephen Harper says it is time to re-assert a claim to the north

Canada has announced plans for six naval patrol vessels and a deep-water port in the north to assert its claim to territorial waters in the Arctic.

Other countries, including the US, say the waters are international territory.

The $3bn (£1.5bn) announcement at Canada's Pacific naval base comes in part to fulfil an election promise.

Ottawa also sees economic potential in protecting its claim to the Arctic, as the area is thought to be rich in natural resources.

'Lucrative'

Since the end of the Cold War, Canada's modest military and coast guard have only rarely patrolled its northern coast line. Now Prime Minister Stephen Harper says the time has come to re-assert Canada's claim to the north.

Oil, gas and diamonds are thought to lie beneath the Arctic waters

At a dockside ceremony complete with brass bands, fluttering flags and sharp white uniforms, the prime minister promised to build at least six new patrol ships with ice-breaking hulls to extend his country's presence into the Arctic Ocean.

That presence, Ottawa hopes, will remind other countries - including the US - of Canada's claim to the waters off its northern coast.

The claim could also have serious economic implications. Natural resources including oil, gas and diamonds are thought to lurk - perhaps in abundance - under the Arctic ice.

And then there is the North-West Passage - the northern shipping route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans that European explorers sought for centuries.

With a warming climate, the route may just become viable and lucrative.

A deciding factor in the territorial disputes may be whether Canadians ever actually venture into the areas in question. And so the time has come, Ottawa says, to make sure that they do.

[sourcery]

Basic References:

• Hostages to a hoax
• Sun's Output Increasing in Possible Trend Fueling Global Warming
• Solar variability and global warming: a statistical comparison since 1850 (PDF)
• Can solar variability explain global warming since 1970? (PDF)
• Variations in solar luminosity and their effects on Earth's climate (PDF)
• The Myth of Dangerous Human-Caused Climate Change (PDF)
• Environmental Effects of Increased Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide
• Geophysical, archeological and historical evidence support a solar-output model for climate change
• Gamma rays and climate (PDF)
• Linkages between solar activity, climate predictability and water resource development (PDF)
• Proof on Ice: Southern Greenland Was Once Green; Earth Warmer
• Global Warming and Nature's Thermostat
• The Past and Future of Climate (PDF)
• The Great Global Warming Swindle
• IceCap

Lawrence Solomon's "The Deniers" (a series of articles on the view of scientists who have been labelled "Global Warming Deniers"):

• Science, not politics
• Statistics needed
• The original denier: into the cold
• End the chill
• They call this a consensus?
• The limits of predictability
• Unsettled science
• Models trump measurements
• The ice-core man
• The hurricane expert who stood up to UN junk science
• Polar scientists on thin ice
• The sun moves climate change
• Bright sun, warm Earth. Coincidence?
• Look to Mars for the truth on global warming
• Read the sunspots
• Forget warming - beware the new ice age
• Little Ice Age is still with us
• Fighting climate 'fluff'

Other References:

• Alarmist global warming claims melt under scientific scrutiny
• The Global Warming Myth
• Father of Climatology Throws Up at the Thought of Al Gore's 'An Inconvenient Truth'
• IPCC Scientists Challenge Al Gore’s View of Global Warming Consensus
• Swedish Scientist Accuses UN's IPCC of Falsifying Data and Destroying Evidence
• CO2 Science
• Global Warming and Climate Forcing by Recent Albedo Changes on Mars
• Climate Momentum Shifting: Prominent Scientists Reverse Belief in Man-made Global Warming - Now Skeptics
• The Real 'Inconvenient Truth'
• New findings indicate today's greenhouse gas levels not unusual
• Climate Change: Incorrect information on pre-industrial CO2
• Global Warming as a Religion
• I Was On the Global Warming Gravy Train (By David Evans)
• Global Warming: it's not caused by greenhouse gases says academic
• Still Waiting for Greenhouse
• GREENIE WATCH
• Why Global Warming Would be Good for You
• Temperature vs. Cosmic Ray Flux
• Global Warming Primer (PDF)
• Global Warming: An Official Pseudoscience
• Fiddler On The Roof
• Debating Global Warming
• Climate Resistance

[calex59]

Oil, gas and diamonds are thought to lie beneath the Arctic waters

So I guess all we have to do is pump out the artic ocean and we can drill for oil and mine for diamonds.(Kidding)

[Ouderkirk]

This is good. Our neighbors to the north are going to assert themselves again instead of being a doormat.

[Catholic Canadian]

Natural resources including oil, gas and diamonds are thought to lurk - perhaps in abundance - under the Arctic ice.

I wonder how long until the polar bears convert to Islam and declare Jihad on us?

[Tim Slagle]

Seems to me, that since America is responsible for the warming that caused the melting that opened the passage, it belongs to US!

[G8 Diplomat]

Putin did the exact same thing but with a chunk of land in the Arctic. When Russia goes after resources it was labelled “fascism” or “imprerialism”, but when a Western nation does the same thing it’s OK. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no Russophile nor do I have an ounce of trust for Putin, but I don’t see why there’s anything wrong with grabbing a chunk of uninhabited land and using the resources. It’s actually a smart move, and the US should be doing the same. Russia’s done it, Canada’s done it, we better get up there before it’s all taken.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

This is long overdue.

Critics are in a quandary. Before the last election, Liberals mocked Harper for promising icebreakers — saying there was no reason for them.

Now, they’re criticizing the change to lighter ships, that will only work in summer ice. (They would have criticized heavier ice breakers as being wasteful.)

Their quandary is: if there is global warming, then all we need is the light ice breakers. All of Harper’s critics have been harping on the threat of global warming so much; that they can’t pretend they don’t believe that light ice breakers will be sufficient for year-around use.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for that info...I love it when the lefties rhetoric leads them into quandaries of their own making!

[MD_Willington_1976]

We already are against the Danes with Ellesmere Island...

The Inuit may have something to say about the resources though, they own a huge chunk of land up there

[Waverunner]

I say just annex Canada and end the discussion.
We can make it a commonwealth loke Puerto Rico and allow all it to be used as a tourist attraction.. Say hello to America’s future under the democrats, no military, no timely health-care, but plenty of drugs, immigrants, and rainbow multiculturalism.

[G8 Diplomat]

...but plenty of drugs, immigrants, and rainbow multiculturalism.

And barf bags

[twonie]

God love you! When you’re right, you’re right! And there they go spending billions (who knew they even HAD billions?) on asserting themselves in the arctic when the rest of us are fighting terror. It’s like the man said: canada will give you any aid short of help.

[agere_contra]

Global Warming really might reduce the ice in the north. After all, it did it in Leif Erikssons day.

It’s not Anthropogenic Global Warming though, that’s the important point.

[G8 Diplomat]

asserting themselves in the arctic when the rest of us are fighting terror

They're fighting terror too...Canada has troops over in Afghanistan.

[baclava]

Those sneaky bastards! Bomb Canada!

[this_ol_patriot]

We’ll be up there with Coast Guard Icebreakers when these poor schmucks freeze themselves in some November, then the Canadian press will lambaste us for causing the warming that got them stuck in the first place. We’ll shrug our shoulders and go on, another good deed by Americans aka the evil ones goes unappreciated.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

ROFL!

[free_life]

God love you! When you’re right, you’re right! And there they go spending billions (who knew they even HAD billions?) on asserting themselves in the arctic when the rest of us are fighting terror. It’s like the man said: canada will give you any aid short of help.

And the Canadian military fighting and dying in Afghanistan are what?

You pompous ass!

[twonie]

No one disputes that the Canadians are fighting and dying in Afghanistan; however, the use of money for this arctic stuff right now makes no sense. Better to spend it on better vehicles, gear, etc., for the troops.