The Arctic holds thirteen percent of the world’s undiscovered oil and thirty percent of its untapped natural gas, which is trillions of dollars of potential profit.
And that means, here in the far north, issues of sovereignty, security, environment, and trade are intersecting at colossal pace.
This documentary looks at the potential environmental impact of resource extraction in the Arctic, and what that might mean for the people who live there.
The UN has imposed a 2013 deadline for the submission of scientific claims to the Arctic seabed. It is the precursor to a resource boom which would see Canada, the US, Russia, Norway and Greenland all attempt to exploit the region’s resources.
These Arctic countries are desperately mapping out their territories so they can tap into the fossil fuels and minerals locked beneath the fast melting ice.
And with global warming speeding up the melting of the Polar ice caps, potential shipping routes are opening up – raising concerns about oil spills, and control over these new passageways.