This week Russia decided to play Christopher Columbus by sending a team to the North Pole and planting a flag. At first this may seem like the biggest waste of time and money since Steve Martin’s remake of the Pink Panther, but those clever Russians just may be holding an ace up their sleeve. By saying that a large portion of the Artic Circle is connected to them by the continental shelf, the Ruskees are hence laying claim to untold gallons of oil. That’s right boys and girls the stuff that makes the world go round and keeps the defense department in business. We all knew Big Oil had to be involved somehow.
By International Law the Artic Circle is supposed to be split into sections with Canada, Norway, Russia, Denmark, and the U.S. controlling a set portion. That being said it’s not likely anyone is going to risk WWIII for a bunch of ice and sea lions. At least not while there are warmer places to be concerned about.
Though at this time there are no immediate environmental concerns (unless you count the Russian sub ramming it’s way through the North Pole), if and when Russia does decide to start mining the murky depths for Mother Oil you can count the effects to the Planet will be life changing.
In response Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay told reporters “This isn’t the 15th century. You can’t go around the world and just plant flags and say ‘We’re claiming this territory’” Still though, there it sits some 13,000 feet underwater and thousands of miles from the rest of world. A single solitary flag made of rust proof titanium silently waving at it’s brother and sisters in the motherland. Silently ushering in an untold future filled with chaos and certain disaster that is sure to arrive once Russia decides to crank up the drills.
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August 3rd, 2007 at 9:15 pm
I can completely see the Eddie Izzard piece on flags! Just look for it on You Tube. “But we have a flag.”
August 3rd, 2007 at 9:26 pm
To get the humor watch this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEx5G-GOS1k
August 16th, 2007 at 6:21 am
[…] been a couple of weeks since I brought you the story of the Russian expedition to claim more of the Artic circle for their own uses. Again I’m amazed that we are actually […]