U.S. Coast Guard seeks base in Arctic
By Matthew L. Wald and Andrew C. Revkin
Friday, October 19, 2007
WASHINGTON: For much of human history, the Arctic Ocean has been an ice-locked frontier. But now, in one of the most concrete signs of the effect of a warming climate on government operations, the U.S. Coast Guard wants to establish its first operating base there to deal with the cruise ships and tankers that are already beginning to ply Arctic waters.
With increasingly long seasons of open water in the region, the Coast Guard has also opened discussions with the Russians about controlling anticipated ship traffic through the Bering Strait, a waterway that until now has been crossed mainly by ice-breaking research vessels and native seal and walrus hunters.
The Coast Guard says its base, which possibly would be in the northernmost U.S. town, Barrow, Alaska, on the North Slope coast, would speed responses to oil spills from tankers, which the guard maintains could eventually carry shipments from Scandinavia to Asia through the Bering Strait.
This long imagined "Northern Sea Route" would cut off around 5,000 miles, or 8,000 kilometers, compared with going through the Panama or Suez canals.
The Coast Guard is also concerned about being able to respond to emergencies involving cruise ships, which are already starting to operate in summers in parts of the Arctic Ocean.
Not surprisingly, the guard would rather discuss the practical implications of warming rather than the politically charged questions of its origin. "I'm not sure I'm qualified to talk about the scientific issues related to global warming," said the commandant of the Coast Guard, Admiral Thad Allen, adding, "All we know is we have an operating environment we're responsible for, and it's changing."
A new survey by U.S. oceanographers of the sea floor north of Alaska, completed last month aboard the Coast Guard icebreaker Healy, has provided fresh evidence that the United States has much at stake in the region. The sonar studies found hints that thousands of square miles of additional sea floor might be potentially under U.S. control. The sea floor could yield important deposits of oil, natural gas or minerals in coming decades, government studies have concluded.
The sea ice had pulled back so far this summer that the expedition was able to scan the bottom several hundred miles further north than it had in previous surveys, said Larry Mayer, the University of New Hampshire oceanographer who is directing that project. The team found long sloping extensions 200 miles beyond previous estimates.
Under the United Nations Law of the Sea treaty, countries have the right to expand their control of seabed resources well beyond the continental shelves bordering coasts if they can find such sloping extensions. More surveys will be needed to firm up any claim.
Senior State Department officials said this week that the United States had to become more involved in the region and urged other countries to cooperate to encourage international trade through the far north.
"Having a safe, secure, and reliable Arctic shipping regime is vital to the proper development of Arctic resources, especially now given the extent of Arctic ice retreat we witnessed this past summer," Daniel Sullivan, an assistant secretary of state, told an international conference in Anchorage, Alaska. "We can have such a regime only through cooperation, not competition, among Arctic nations."
By Matthew L. Wald and Andrew C. Revkin
Friday, October 19, 2007
WASHINGTON: For much of human history, the Arctic Ocean has been an ice-locked frontier. But now, in one of the most concrete signs of the effect of a warming climate on government operations, the U.S. Coast Guard wants to establish its first operating base there to deal with the cruise ships and tankers that are already beginning to ply Arctic waters.
With increasingly long seasons of open water in the region, the Coast Guard has also opened discussions with the Russians about controlling anticipated ship traffic through the Bering Strait, a waterway that until now has been crossed mainly by ice-breaking research vessels and native seal and walrus hunters.
The Coast Guard says its base, which possibly would be in the northernmost U.S. town, Barrow, Alaska, on the North Slope coast, would speed responses to oil spills from tankers, which the guard maintains could eventually carry shipments from Scandinavia to Asia through the Bering Strait.
This long imagined "Northern Sea Route" would cut off around 5,000 miles, or 8,000 kilometers, compared with going through the Panama or Suez canals.
The Coast Guard is also concerned about being able to respond to emergencies involving cruise ships, which are already starting to operate in summers in parts of the Arctic Ocean.
Not surprisingly, the guard would rather discuss the practical implications of warming rather than the politically charged questions of its origin. "I'm not sure I'm qualified to talk about the scientific issues related to global warming," said the commandant of the Coast Guard, Admiral Thad Allen, adding, "All we know is we have an operating environment we're responsible for, and it's changing."
A new survey by U.S. oceanographers of the sea floor north of Alaska, completed last month aboard the Coast Guard icebreaker Healy, has provided fresh evidence that the United States has much at stake in the region. The sonar studies found hints that thousands of square miles of additional sea floor might be potentially under U.S. control. The sea floor could yield important deposits of oil, natural gas or minerals in coming decades, government studies have concluded.
The sea ice had pulled back so far this summer that the expedition was able to scan the bottom several hundred miles further north than it had in previous surveys, said Larry Mayer, the University of New Hampshire oceanographer who is directing that project. The team found long sloping extensions 200 miles beyond previous estimates.
Under the United Nations Law of the Sea treaty, countries have the right to expand their control of seabed resources well beyond the continental shelves bordering coasts if they can find such sloping extensions. More surveys will be needed to firm up any claim.
Senior State Department officials said this week that the United States had to become more involved in the region and urged other countries to cooperate to encourage international trade through the far north.
"Having a safe, secure, and reliable Arctic shipping regime is vital to the proper development of Arctic resources, especially now given the extent of Arctic ice retreat we witnessed this past summer," Daniel Sullivan, an assistant secretary of state, told an international conference in Anchorage, Alaska. "We can have such a regime only through cooperation, not competition, among Arctic nations."
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