Global warming (or some other polar climate changing condition for those of you who do not buy into the whole global warming argument) is creating a shipping lane along the northern coasts of Norway and Russia during the summer months, something that has not existed since the Ice Age.  The Eurasian portion of the route, called the Northeast Passage (or the Northern Sea Route) is the polar equivalent of the Holy Grail for oceanic transport companies.  Transit along this passageway reduces the sailing distance between Rotterdam and Yokohama (two of the world’s most well-developed ports) from 11,200 nautical miles to 6,500 nautical miles and cuts 40% off of the shipping costs.  Historically, goods flowing from Rotterdam to Yokohama were shipped via the Atlantic, into the Mediterranean, through the Suez Canal, past the Somalian pirates, around India and through Indonesia.  With the potential Northern Sea Route, the geo-political landscape greatly changes.

According to United Nations data, over the past three decades, temperatures above the Arctic Circle have risen at about twice the rate of the global average, and Arctic sea ice contracted to its smallest area on record in 2009, covering 22 percent less than the previous low in September 2005.  To the West, Canada and the US are already partial beneficiaries of a melting Arctic as the Northwest Passage from Seattle to Rotterdam saves shipping companies equipped to tackle the icy waters of Canada 2000 nautical miles and allows them to avoid the Panama Canal.  The fly in this ointment:  Canada is already claiming control of the entirety of the Northwest Passage.

But control of the sea passage is not the only high stakes angle in play along the Arctic waters.  According to the US Geological Survey, the Arctic accounts for 1/10^th of the world’s known conventional oil reserves and 25% of the undiscovered reserves.  According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, China is well-aware of the resource upside of global warming and has designated significant resources in constructing an Arctic research laboratory and conducting polar studies.  Russia’s NATO ambassador has stated that it would “not be defeated” in the “fight for resources” in the Arctic region  Folks, notice the word choice?  Those are military terms.

The US supported a revolution in Panama and spent more on the Panama Canal than it had on any construction project the Nation’s history.  Egypt actually enslaved its own people to construct the Suez Canal.  The Northwest and Northeast Passages are critically important to global transportation and the energy resource fronts and there will be conflict over control and access.  A new oil rush is coming,… and if 25% of the world’s reserves are in the Arctic, you can bet the US will be there,… providing some humanitarian support.

So if everyone was jumping off of a bridge, would Big Oil jump in with them and pollute the water? Saying that everyone else gets subsidies so Oil should too is like saying, “all the other kids get FREE lunch at school, I should get it too even though my parents make more money than all their parents combined.”  It astonishes me every time I see a billionaire CEO of a company defending his “in-touchness” with the common American.  The average worker cannot afford gas prices (that have risen around $4/gal) to fill up their tanks to get to their minimum wage Walmart jobs that they took simply to pay for their gas.  All this while Big Oil is complaining they may lose subsidies — (the federal taxes taken out of the Walmart employee’s paycheck) — causing them to fly first class on a commercial airline instead of in their own private jets.

The most worrisome thing is that I don’t believe Congress will put a stop to rising gas prices.  Even if some of the governmental leadership recognizes that this is one of the major problems in the US at the moment (unemployment, ‘end of days’ weather patterns and the NHL playoffs being a few others) politicians are powerless to the interests of the money that feeds their campaigns.  And although Big Oil dollars do not hold a candle to political donations generated from the general population, the common person can no longer spare a donation to their favorite candidate since their wallet is being sucked dry at the Exxon station (so Exxon leaders can).   In sum, the common man remains in a week-to-week existence with no political voice (i.e. campaign giving) by a subsided business which uses its profits to push its own agenda designed to give the commoner no access.  Hmmm. Sounds a bit Un-American.