Earlier this week Denmark became the latest nation to stake claim to the North Pole, prompting children everywhere to wonder, is Santa a Dane?
The answer depends a lot on who you ask: Canada and Russia both have submitted claims to the same United Nations panel as Denmark and North Pole, Alaska, seems to think the great elf resides there. Denmark controls Greenland, which falls further to the north than Canada and forms the basis of the Nordic country’s claim to the pole and St. Nick’s home.
“Certainly my kids would be very upset to learn the Greenlanders or the Russians all of a sudden would have ownership of Santa’s Workshop,” joked Whitney Lackenbauer, a history professor at St. Jerome’s University and co-director of an ArcticNet project on Arctic security, in an interview.
From a practical standpoint, I believe that dreams of resource richs from the north pole are fantastical
There might be some gas or oil resources buried deep under the Arctic ocean, but all three countries — Canada, Russia and Denmark — could make reasonable claims to reserves closest to them under existing international law and treaties.
“There’s no indication there are any viable resources, but according to the Convention on the Law of the Sea, a country like Canada or Denmark or Russia already has these rights,” Lackenbauer said. “From a practical standpoint, I believe that dreams of resource riches from the North Pole are fantastical.”
He thinks something else inspires leaders to fight over the symbolic location.
“The North Pole has captured Canadian imaginations for generations… I think it comes down to mainly national prestige,” Lackenbauer said. “The North Pole is sort of an arbitrary dot on the map… it literally is an imaginary dot.”
Though it might be arbitrary there are real politics behind all this posturing: Canada has twice bestowed citizenship on Santa and Mrs. Claus as family-friendly public relations stunts. Liberal leader Justin Trudeau also agrees Santa is a good, giving Canuck, but sentiment isn’t enough.
Science will prove who owns the North Pole, but international negotiations will set the terms, Lackenbauer explained. The U.N. Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf will review scientific submissions from all claimants and vet the research, but the panel does not have the power to decide who controls the pole. Instead, its findings will set the term for international negotiations.
“Denmark putting this in before us doesn’t put us in a precarious position when it comes to sovereignty, and Denmark is clear that its submission is without prejudice to the submissions of other states,” Lackenbauer said. That could suggest it simply wants a slice of the pie when the divvying is done.
Santa may need to dive deep to find out who owns his Arctic home. (Darryl Dyck/ Canadian Press)
What the tribunal will consider is whose continental shelves extend furthest or even under the North Pole. Just this past summer, the Canadian government launched an exploratory mission that could add further evidence to its claim, formally submitted to the United Nations around this time last year.
Russia also submitted a claim years ago, but the tribunal junked its science and told it to collect more facts and resubmit. The Siberian state has yet to do so, Lackenbauer said.
As for the state of Canada’s submission, this summer’s research and more planned for next year will form the basis of a revised claim. But, because the U.N. panel can’t impose a decision, it will all come down to diplomatic talks and could results in the pole being a dividing point as opposed to something owned by any one country.
“It will probably be a long process to sort out the actual limits of our respective continental shelves” even with everything that’s going on in the Ukraine and all the repugnant Russian aggression there… I do not anticipate we can expect military conflict over these very remote Arctic boundaries,” Lackenbauer said.
Instead, expect lots of big talk, political posturing, and of course, unsupported claims in Santa’s name.
Source:: canada.com
