標題:Melting Ice Brings Competition for Resources
Part 2: An Arctic Cold War?
新聞來源:http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,579265-2,00.html
(需有正確連結)
By Gerald Traufetter
National covetousness and unclear rights of ownership could even lead to a
cold war in the Arctic Ocean. Although the foreign ministers of the five
Arctic nations came to a diplomatically worded agreement this spring to
further strengthen "cooperation in the Arctic Ocean," this certainly does not
stop these countries from embarking on a massive military buildup in the
region.
Canada, for example, is adding 1,000 additional soldiers to its Arctic Ranger
troops, investing more than $3 billion (€2.1 billion) in new Arctic patrol
ships and building a new naval station at Nanisivik for $100 million (€70
million). "The first principle of Arctic sovereignty is: Use it or lose it,"
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said when he announced plans to expand Canadian
territorial waters by a half-million square kilometers (193,000 square miles)
at the end of last month.
The United States, for its part, is currently surveying the ocean floor north
of Alaska. Following in the footsteps of the Russians, the United States
hopes to assert extensive territorial claims in the region before the United
Nations. Part of Washington's plans include spending an estimated $1.5
billion (€1.05 billion) on new ice-breakers, as Michael Chertoff, the head
of the powerful Department of Homeland Security, said recently when he
visited Alaska with Admiral Thad Allen, commandant of the US Coast Guard.
"All I know is there's open water where there didn't used to be, and I'm
responsible for it," the admiral said in a booming voice.
In a few weeks, the White House plans to unveil a new political strategy for
the Arctic, the first since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early
1990s. There are smoldering territorial conflicts between Denmark and Canada,
and between Russia and Norway.
Energized by visions of mineral resources soon to be released from the grip
of the ice, politicians, too, are discovering polar research. Millions upon
millions of dollars are suddenly becoming available, as the Arctic
experiences, in this year's International Polar Year, an onslaught of climate
researchers, ecologists and geologists. The governments have an ulterior
motive, hoping that science will help back up their territorial claims.
Denmark is spending close to €340 million ($486 million) on polar research.
From the pragmatists' standpoint, the Arctic Ocean is opening up at just the
right time. Exploding prices are fueling an onslaught on the riches of the
North. The British-Dutch energy conglomerate Shell, for example, spent a
record sum of $2 billion (€1.4 billion) for licenses in the Chukchi Sea
north of the Bering Strait.
Energy multinational BP recently spent $1 billion (€700 million) for oil
exploration rights in the pack ice in Canada's Mackenzie River estuary
region. A $16.2 billion (€11.3 billion) pipeline will connect the new
energy-producing region with areas to the south. The Danish company DONG
Energy A/S began collecting seismic data in Disko Bay on the west coast of
Greenland.
A forecast issued by the US Geological Survey (USGS) in July has ignited both
fascination and greed. For the first time, the agency provided a detailed
estimate of the Arctic region's oil and gas potential. The USGS concludes
that the region north of the Arctic Circle holds the equivalent of 412
billion barrels of oil, or close to one-quarter of the world's undiscovered
but technically reachable oil and gas reserves. This is significantly more
than proven reserves in Saudi Arabia.
The true dawning of the Arctic boom has only been made possible by satellite
navigation and nuclear-powered icebreakers -- and climate change. By
accelerating global warming, the wasteful burning of oil and gas is causing
the ice in the North to melt, thereby clearing the way to the Arctic, where,
ironically enough, gigantic oil and gas reserves lie waiting to be exploited.
Geologists, resource hunters, zoologists and the military -- all are taking
advantage of the brief polar summer to deprive the last wilderness of its
secrets.
The "Polar Pioneer" drilling platform, Barents Sea, 72° 53' North, 26° 35'
East
Geir Richardsen, 47, will probably never get used to the cumbersome procedure
involved in squeezing himself into his protective gear. He forces the
uncooperative neoprene over his head, pulls it over his hands and smiles in
amusement at how odd they look, sheathed in plastic. But Richardsen, a
geophysicist working for the Norwegian energy conglomerate StatoilHydro,
knows perfectly well that his helicopter is flying over water where the
temperature is barely above freezing. "Without the suit, you would freeze to
death in minutes."
Richardsen normally wears a pinstriped suit to work, in an air-conditioned
office with carefully trimmed indoor plants. But when this workweek begins,
he will be standing in a filthy mix of mud, oil and viscous drilling fluid.
"There is something to celebrate," the Norwegian says. His helicopter makes
one last victory lap around the drilling platform before touching down safely
on the landing pad. The steel monstrosity stands in the Barents Sea, almost
halfway between the North Cape and the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen.
This platform is still a rarity in the rough-and-ready oil business. "But
that will change," says Richardsen. The name "Polar Pioneer" is more than
appropriate. The drilling platform is currently the northernmost operating
platform of its type. The horrendous costs (hundreds of thousands for a
single day of drilling) seem to be paying off. The rotary head struck gas
three days ago -- the reason for Richardsen's visit.
For majority state-owned StatoilHydro, the new gas field, dubbed Ververis, is
a test zone for the further exploration of Arctic energy resources. "In my
student days, if anyone had told me to drill for gas up here," says
Richardsen, "I would have laughed out loud." Too cold, too dangerous, too
expensive -- that was every expert's assessment at the time.
In Canada and the United States, lawsuits initially stood in the way of
exploratory drilling off the Arctic coast. Norway, on the other hand, proved
to be more intrepid. "We want to be the leaders in developing the Arctic
reserves," says Richardsen, who heads StatoilHydro's oil and gas exploration
efforts north of the Arctic Circle.
Workers, their red protective suits covered with a pervasive layer of grime,
balance the suspended metal parts. The rods come crashing down onto the
corrugated metal floor of the platform, spewing sludge extracted from the
depths. Everything moves in keeping with the choreography of chief driller
Egil Slåtbråten, who sits at a joystick in a Plexiglas cockpit.
Slåtbråten's job became complicated the day the drill reached the gas
deposit. Suddenly everything had to move quickly. "Raise the counterpressure
so the gas doesn't shoot up into the well," says Slåtbråten, the folds of
skin on his neck tightening with the strain. The methane was under 395 bar of
pressure. But the geologists wanted all kinds of samples, which meant that Sl
åtbråten had to drill laterally into the layer of rock that contained the
gas, and then seal off the hole.
"It's a completely sealed system," says Terje Svendsen, explaining that this
is why it is so pleasantly warm on the work deck. Svendsen is a deck hand,
which makes him responsible for everything that happens on the deck of the
platform. He takes Richardsen on a tour of the "Polar Pioneer," out of its
protective shell and down to the last level above the surface of the water.
At this level, it is possible to see the drill pipe as it disappears into the
swells. Deep below, at a depth of 2,926 meters (9,597 feet), the metal is
eating its way through rock. "A nice summer's day," says Svendsen, as
Richardsen turns up his collar. When the feared polar low-pressure systems
come roaring in, the spray slaps against the men's faces and freezes
immediately onto metal parts. "We break off the ice with axes," says the
50-year-old deck hand.
But even Svendsen's good spirits have their limits. "You know," he says to
Richardsen, "there's a reason I have a vacation house in Thailand."
--
「就像其他各類集體主義一樣，種族主義也尋求不勞而獲。它尋求自動獲得知識﹔它尋求
自動評價人們的品質而忽略運用理性或道德判斷的責任﹔而更重要的是，它尋求自動的自
尊（或偽自尊）」
Ayn Rand<The Virtue of Selfishness>
致台灣之光的影迷跟球迷
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