The Race to the Poles

This past Thursday, Canada and Russia tried to work out claims over the Arctic as each country looked to its energy riches and new shipping routes made increasingly possible by the melting Polar ice. 
Along with Canada and Russia, Norway, Denmark, and the United States are all at odds over how to divide up the Arctic seabed. Why? According to the US Geological Survey, the Arctic is thought to hold 90 billion barrels of oil and 30 percent of the world's untapped gas resources.
Every winter, the Arctic ice shelf returns less and less making the seabed more accessible.
In an effort to solidify the idea that the North Pole has been claimed since 2007 (Here: Quest for the Poles), Russia will boost its research efforts next month by launching a drifting research station. Russia must have scientific data of such energy sources, prove that the people of Russia need said energy and submit them to the United Nations in 2013 (matching the claim made by Canada expected for that year.)
The two Arctic nations claim the Lomonosov Ridge, a mountain chain running underneath the Arctic, as an extension of their continental shelf. AP

Tigers: Bringing Countries Together

Photo Credit: Kim Sullivan Photography

With an estimated population of only 500, the Siberian Tiger is one of the most endangered species on the planet. The tigers habitat covers a vast section of Asia with a number of different countries it calls home.
Making protection in the wild a challenge to say the least.
In an effort to keep this species from disappearing forever, Russia and China have agreed to set up the first ever cross - border protection zone for a species of animal.
"... Transnational protection area will provide a wider and healthier habitat for Siberian tigers and other endangered species, such as the Far East leopard," states Yu Changchun of Jilins Forestry Department.
Siberian Tigers have been hunted to such low numbers for various reasons; their hide, meat, they pose a threat to local cattle, but it is their holistic properties to the Chinese people that cause the most harm. Killing a Siberian Tiger for medical purposes has been made illegal in 1993 but officials state that it extremely difficult to prevent all deaths. Out of the 500 tigers, only 20 are surviving in China. BBC.UK

Russia Basically Bans The Hunt For Harp Seal Pups

Not long after the first ruling that states seal pups that are less then a month old is prohibited, a second more modified ban was put in place. No young Harp seal can be killed that is under the age of one. (Note: Harp seal pups are nearly fully grown at one year.)

"This bloody hunting is from now on banned in our country as in most developed countries. This is an important measure to preserve Russia's biodiversity," states the person responsible for the new law, Natural Resources Minister Yury Trutrev.

This law comes at a crucial time for the Harp seal pups with numbers declining 60% in the last five years. The ban is due as a response to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin criticised remarks calling the killing of seal pups a "bloody practice." Source.

Just When The World Starts Making Some Progress..

Militia's in the countries of Africa hand over their captive child soldiers, Ecuador gives its' native species inalienable rights, President Obama takes the first steps toward a more energy efficient planet and then oil spills and kills hundreds of birds on Russia's shore.
The thing about this story is that the people responsible are not stepping up to take the necessary actions to rehabilitate the infected environment. The spill, in Aniva Bay on the south side of Sakhalin, Russia, took place six kilometers from the building of a major plant.
The Sakhalin II LNG plant {LNG stands for Liquefied Natural Gas} is, to be, the first of its kind in Russia. It will receive over an estimated 1,200 million barrels of crude oil and 500 billion cubic meters of natural gas, treat it and then send it through a process, a highly complex process, to liquefy natural gas. Sakhalin II is of vital importance to Russia's present energy policy. A policy created in 2000 with a goal they hope to reach by 2020. The plan goes as follows: an increase in energy efficiency, reducing the impact on the global environment, sustainable energy development and technological development, as well as improved effectiveness and competitiveness.
Wind direction had linked the spill to an oil tanker on route to the LNG plant. However, a spokesperson for Sakhalin II Energy project, said that, "There had not been a single incident connected with the spill of oil products into the Aniva Bay."
Shareholders for the plant include Shell (of course), Mitsui and the Mitsubishi Corporation.
One other thing with to story is this: the oil spill is immobilizing sea birds and making them very intising for the Steller's Sea Eagle. And besides being a gorgeous creature, the eagle is the islands leading wildlife attraction and will definitely choke and die if it eats the oil slicked prey.
Not leaving it up to large, irresponsible companies, the citizens have taken control to clean up their environment. "..The local population are trying to rescue the birds that are still alive and wash them," Vladimir Bardin, the head of the Sakhalin diving centre, has said.
Go HERE {to the WWF site} to read more about the Stellar's Sea Eagle and see what an amazing bird it is and how devastating it would be to loose them.
To Read more about Russia's Energy Policy Go HERE.

TurmOil

The seas have been seriously polluted this past week in two separate incidences on opposite ends of the world.
Due to an unusual amount of fog on the morning of November 7th, a Cosco Busan oil tanker struck a tower of the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, CA. The collision caused the tanker to suffer a long gash from the bow to the stern, releasing 58,000 gallons of fuel oil into the ocean.
"This is a major spill," said Wil Bruhns, a division chief at the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board. "It certainly has the potential to cause damage to birds, fish and other wildlife."
Oil spill clean-ups have continued to advance with every passing crisis; if rescuers can get to it in time. The Coast Guard initially called the spill minor but later realized the amount of fuel was greater than first thought. Environmentalists faulted the U.S. Coast Guard for not notifying organizational clean-up crews fast enough and for being slow to put inflatable booms on the water's surface to prevent oil from spreading. While San Francisco is hard at work cleaning wildlife and 58,000 gallons of fuel out of the water, Russia is scrambling to recover from a catastrophic accident.
A severe storm broke a small Russian oil tanker in two off the Ukrainian port of Kerch on Sunday, spilling up to 2,000 tons of fuel oil into the ocean. Russia's Environmental Agency's major concern right now is that of the migratory birds since the spill happened at the center of a migration route from central Siberia into the Black Sea of the seabirds, the red-throated and black-throated Siberian divers and now is the peak of their migration. The same area is also home to porpoises not to mention the countless fish.
"This problem may take a few years to solve. Fuel oil is a heavy substance and it is now sinking to the seabed," Oleg Mitvol, deputy head of Russia's environment agency Rosprirodnadzor told state-run Vesti-24 television channel.
"This is a very serious environmental disaster." Source.