Denmark to claim the North Pole

Send in the penguin army! *

@Game Chainsaw: there's a continental shelf, possible mineral resources, and a buttload of life down there. Not worthless.

Morven, you've had to say "mineral rights" three times now.

Let's try a different track.

There's oil there, everbody wants the oil.

Right, now we've mentioned oil and everybody's "ooh, look at me, I'm a political cynic" radar has pinged, replace "oil" with "mineral rights".

What about metallic nodes resting on the ocean floor? Dredge the botom, fish out the nuggets, done.

Denmark has being claimng greenland for years, why is this news now?

edited 18th May '11 5:44:50 PM by joeyjojo

Plus as the article says there's also control over potential future shipping lanes if the Arctic ice melts. But there's also the mineral rights. And the disused 60s-era supervillain bases.

Claiming? They have Greenland and Greenland isn't the North Pole.

To set the record straight as partially mentioned earlier, the Arctic basin has a fuckton of oil. More than the entire Middle East and North Africa combined by some estimates. He who can stake their claim first on the region be it Russia, the US, Canada, Denmark or whoever will gain a significant amount of resources towards their own energy independence and/or exports.

In the cases of the US, Canada and Russia, the Economic Exclusionary Zones overlap in the region owing to the poorly defined borders of continental shelf. Do the math.

Well it's the biggest landmass in the arctic, but I take your point.

edited 18th May '11 7:51:13 PM by joeyjojo

What great timing. Wikileaks had just release diplomatic cables revealing how nearly every country with some geographical relation with the Arctic now wants a piece of it.

But what really intrigues me is the potential for a shorter shipping lane between the the East and West opening up there when the ice caps recede. Suddenly the Suez Canal way, with its pirate-infested Gulf of Aden and Straits of Malacca, won't look so attractive anymore. Along-the-way countries that build their economies on international shipping across Eurasia (mainly Singapore) stand to lose from this.

edited 19th May '11 3:30:39 AM by MalagasyParrot

Gee, Denmark, wasn't the Schleswig Question confusing enough for diplomats to know about?

Although yeah the "we want oil" angle makes sense.

Denmark is obviously imperialisming on the Polar Bears from the Coca Cola Commercials. This is a fiendish power play which cannot be allowed to stand.

Imperialism is never okay for anyone but the United States!

Clearly, global warming is only being continued by several dedicated businesses to defeat the threat of piracy. Those brave, altruistic souls.

That won't stop piracy. The opening of the Northwest passage would only ferment the rise of polar pirates! "Santa's naughty elves" the media will call them.

I suggest we bump up the Polar Bear population to deter such piracy.

But then there would be pirates near the pole. This would refreeze it due to inherent pirate coolness, killing any thing the pirates could steal, it's a self correcting problem!

—walks in to make Santa Claus joke—

—sees DG beat me too it—

—hisses—

—leaves—

It's either Russia, Scandinavians, US/Canada.

Quietly advancing their own claim while US/Canada vs Russia bitch over sovereignty is a very smart move.

edited 19th May '11 4:34:40 AM by SavageHeathen

Kitty!

It's all a part of Denmark's evil conspiracy to RULE TEH WORLD!!!!!

And you thought they were just a bunch of friendly Scandinavians.

edited 19th May '11 5:39:22 AM by inane242

Apparently they've decided to give the "marauding Danes" schtick another go.

But of course. The last 200 years of playing the weak little nation is all a ploy. Now that you've been lulled into a false sense of security, it's time to make our bid for world domination! Viking style.

They're going to take Greenland and Newfoundland next.

You really weren't reading...they already have Greenland.

Oooohhhhhh, I'm really scared. What are you gonna do, come after us in your LEGO ships?

I mean the Land that is Green, which would mean Iceland. Greenland is the icy one.