POLAR REGIONS

Polar Politics

Native Rights The Arctic peoples have suffered in the same way as native people elsewhere. Eurasians and North Americans have often come to explore or hunt wildlife. For hundreds of years they killed whales and seals and hunted animals for fur. During this century they have mined for oil and minerals. The Inuit of Alaska, Canada, and Greenland have formed a group. By coming together they have had more effect on the governments that rule their land. The Alaskan Inuit made an agreement with the US government in 1971. It gave them a billion dollars and about a tenth of the land. This was in exchange for the right of the government to mine and seek oil under the ground. Arctic people in the former USSR were treated much worse. There is little chance the Siberian natives will receive any money for the minerals taken from their lands. They continued to struggle with maintaining their ancient ways in a modern world. Search for Oil and Security As more of the Arctic has been mapped and explored, it has become clear that the sea bottom underneath the polar ice cap hides one of the world’s largest reserves of oil and natural gas. This provides a major challenge. Exploiting that oil adds to the problem of climate change (see page 44), while increasing the danger to the delicate environment of the Arctic itself. The warning signs of oil spill disasters, like the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska, are loud and clear. Such spills would wreak havoc in the unspoiled Arctic. Yet the world clamors for more and more oil. The challenge

T he Inuit have suffered at the hands of Eurasians and North Americans for hundreds of years.

T his Russian oil exploration platform could become a familiar site in the Arctic if the nations concerned with the Arctic don’t act.

for governments and private industry is to find a solution that prevents such disasters, but creates possible ways for mankind to benefit. It is a delicate balance and one that has not been solved yet. Is the answer to use this as a way to spur use of non-fossil-fuel, renewable energies? Some nations care little for that, while others recognize the long-term possible dangers of oil drilling. As technology improves, both for explorers and energy companies, governments will have to work together to protect the far north.

41