THE ARCTIC REGION: NEXT HOT SPOT?

Fergettabout Iran, North Korea, or Taiwan.  Is the next catalyst for a world war over the Arctic Circle region around the North Pole, which happens to be a combustible mixture of being both a potentially oil and other natural resource rich area that also has indistinct and debated borders?

Five countries — Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the United States — have Arctic Ocean coastlines and, under international convention, have rights to economic zones within 200 miles of their shores. Denmark has sent its own scientific expeditions to study the opposite end of the ocean-spanning ridge and to seek proof that it is torn from the continental shelf north of Greenland, which is a Danish territory.

Several other countries seek to extend their influence in the circle, seeing the mostly unpopulated region’s potential for providing a hydrocarbon and mineral rush. The ultimate demarcation, if geologists’ estimates of its deposits prove true, could be a key to future national wealth and power.

If I were Canada I'd totally watch my back.  Our country, sweet ol' US of A with our Lady Liberty and apple pie, does some crazy things for a lil' sugah, or rather oil.