A broken Antarctic taboo

Author

Maric Brauers
May 18, 2024

Table of Contents

A Broken Antarctic Taboo

Credit to Jens Smit

Since 2011 the British Environmental Audit Sub-Committee on Polar Research (or EAC) has been getting more and more reports of Russian exploration vessels in the Antarctic. And the EAC confirmed what many scientists were worried was already happening. The Russians are exploring the Antarctic for oil. Mainly within Norwegian and British territories. The slippery slope on a new resource race in Antarctica has thus already started. Countries like Chile and Argentina have now already planned to send surveying and exploration vessels to their respective Antarctic claims.

You can't blame Chile nor Argentina for their actions, although it may be morally and legally dubious. For them, it's quite simple. If Russia is allowed to do it, why can't they? For south-America, oil extraction in the Antarctic would be a major economic boost, mainly for Argentina, which really needs to get its economy sorted and strengthen its export business, as it's doing with mining.

The Russians may be more active in the region since Ukraine has switched up their tactics, to long-range mass drone strikes on oil refineries. The oil market in Russia, although far from broken, saw its first sign of weakness when the state owned gas giant Gazprom had suffered its first loss in 20 years. Russia might be now looking for new ways and areas to get their oil industries back on track, far from Ukrainian drones. And what better place than the South Pole?

Ironically, the ship that undertook these last surveys was the Ukrainian built AKADEMIK ALEKSANDR KARPINSKIY.

Credit: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi/Bloomberg

The East African country is host to Chinese, French and US naval bases — but it has warned Washington not to use its territory to confront militants attacking global trade.

Captain Mohammed Houssein Omar patrols one of the most dangerous coastlines in the world. Until the Israel-Hamas conflict reignited seven months ago, it was largely people smugglers and drug traffickers that occupied his fleet of nearly 70 coastguard patrol boats. But since Houthi militants from neighboring Yemen began attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea, the coastguard officer has never been so stretched.

“Nobody deserves to be attacked with missiles,” he says. “Those targeted in the Red Sea are innocent, so we are there to help.”

Djibouti, an authoritarian former French colony of just one million people, only gained independence in 1977 and is surrounded by bigger, more unstable neighbors. It is bordered to the north by Eritrea, a pariah state for the best part of two decades; to the south by Somalia, which has been ravaged for years by an Islamist insurgency; and to its west by Ethiopia, recovering from a brutal civil war that killed more than 500,000 people in just two years, according to US and European Union estimates.

The location of the tiny East African nation, at the point where the Red Sea meets the Gulf of Aden, has made Djibouti — a predominantly Islamic country — a strategic priority for major powers. It’s home to Chinese, French, Italian, Japanese and US military bases. Germany would like its own naval base in the country too, according to diplomats in the region. Tokyo has recently supplied new coastguard patrol vessels.

These international investments in military hardware and intelligence gathering have never looked more important. The Iran-backed Houthi militants, who say they are targeting Israeli-linked cargo ships, have caused the most significant diversion of seaborne trade in decades. In the first two months of 2024, trade through the Suez Canal, which sits at the top of the Red Sea, dropped by 50 percent from a year earlier, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Credit: Laetitia Vancon for The New York Times

The move could draw the United States and Europe more directly into the war. The Biden administration continues to say there will be no American troops on the ground.

NATO allies are inching closer to sending troops into Ukraine to train Ukrainian forces, a move that would be another blurring of a previous red line and could draw the United States and Europe more directly into the war.

Ukraine’s manpower shortage has reached a critical point, and its position on the battlefield in recent weeks has seriously worsened as Russia has accelerated its advances to take advantage of delays in shipments of American weapons. As a result, Ukrainian officials have asked their American and NATO counterparts to help train 150,000 new recruits closer to the front line for faster deployment.

So far the United States has said no, but Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Thursday that a NATO deployment of trainers appeared inevitable. “We’ll get there eventually, over time,” he said.

Deep Dive

Europe’s Spending Billions on Green Hydrogen. It’s a Risky Gamble

Credit: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg

Governments and companies want the clean fuel to play a big role in fueling the continent. If they’re wrong, the planet will be worse off than before.

Maric's notes:

A must-read.

While I believe green energy and fuels are the future. It is also important to stay alert to the risks these alternative sources bring with them. Just because something is 'renewable' doesn't mean it's sustainable or good for the environment.

Hydrogen being a good example with some hefty pros and cons. So does every 'green' or 'gray' solution. The thing that makes it sustainable is the way we can mix these different solutions so they negate each other's negative and strengthen their positive effects.
While there is no perfect solution, we all strive to make the world a better place. And everyone has a different opinion on how we achieve that, the strength we have as humanity is to sit down together and discuss. To work together to a solution that benefits us all.

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