Man’s greed knows no boundaries. The next gold rush is to the freezing Arctic Ocean. The hullabaloo started after Russia planted its flag in the ocean bed and staked its claim over the part of Arctic Ocean called North West passage- which remains frozen during winter.Canada and Denmark have come up with their own claims. Thanks to global warming that ice is melting. The sea in a few years time will be free of ice. Hence the scramble for it. According to estimates it contains 25% of earth’s untapped oil. United States, Russia, Canada, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark (via control of Greenland) have claims on the stretch of sea. The latest developments will severely test the international accord that governs oceans and seabeds. The matter is complex. The Law of the Sea Treaty gives a nation the option of expanding its ocean economic zone-over which it has exclusive resource-development rights-beyond the two-hundred-mile limit off its coasts if it can prove that the seafloor is actually an extension of its geological territory. Russia has made its bid on that basis. It claims Lomonosov Ridge starts from its landmass. The sickening part of the whole matter is that the nations concerned are fighting over future benefits from global warming. It should have intensified attempts to contain the growing threat of the earth heating up. What use will be all the minerals if human existence will end, unable to tolerate the climate changes wrought by man’s wrong deeds. Image credit