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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
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.
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.