Northern fights

For hundreds of years explorers have been trying to find the Northwest Passage -- a sea route through the Arctic that could connect Europe and Asia. Such a course would save time and money for ships that would otherwise need to travel around Africa's Cape of Good Hope or South America's Cape Horn (or, since 1914, through the Panama Canal).

Eventually it was determined that the Arctic route was impassable due to the polar ice cap, but that doesn't seem to be the case any more. Global climate change has melted the pack ice, opening up an east-west waterway. However, Canada has long claimed that such a course violates that nation's sovereignty because it cuts through internal Canadian waters. The US and many European countries disagree.

Just two months ago a Russian submarine at the North Pole dropped a capsule with that nation's flag inside, symbolically claiming the ocean floor as part of its territory. Canada, the US and other bordering nations objected. All parties are interested in getting access to whatever resources, including oil, might lie below the Arctic, and each wants to stake a claim as our warming planet makes those resources easier to access and exploit.

Stay tuned, as these conflicts -- currently in the war of words stage -- will likely move to the international judicial circuit, and possibly push nations to military conflict, in the coming decades.