Sovereignty of Ocean Resources Flashcards
1
Q
Mineral Resources
A
- diamonds off S&W coast of S.Africa and deposits of tin, titanium and gold found along shores of Alaska
- deep sea waters = vast amounts of undiscovered resources including manganese nodules, cobalt crusts and sulphide muds
- currently rarely profitable as extraction is very difficult and expensive and export shipping costs are increasing
- 2014-16, prices of minerals fell due to shrinking demand from China as economic growth slowed, further reducing profitability
2
Q
Fossil fuels
A
- ocean floors are important for recovery of fossil fuels as important oil and gas reserves are found in shallow and deeper water locations offshore
- Gulf of Mexico oil spill 2010 demonstrates risks of deeper offshore reserves
- states including Australia, china, Brazil, Canada and Norway allow MNCs to drill for oil deep water close to shoreline
- large offshore oil discoveries near Brazil 2006, BP, Total and Statoil rushed to explore Angolas offshore waters where major oil fields found by geologists
3
Q
Geopolitical tensions and conflict
A
- coastal countries may claim sovereign rights over EEZ territorial limit of 200 nm from shoreline, some EEZs overlap
- sates may own oversea territories and claim EEZ around theses, UK established EEZ around Falkland Islands, war fight in 1982 between UK and Argentina related to maritime disjunction
4
Q
What are the two sources of superpower tensions?
A
- S.China Sea
- Arctic Ocean
5
Q
The south china sea
A
- China repeatedly made territorial claims on parts of SCS, contested by other states including the Philippines
- argument based on ownership claim of island groups and surrounding EEZs, some of these islands artificially enlarged by china so they were able to claim larger EEZ
- important energy pathway by passage of oil tankers through waters
- china began to question right of US ships and aircraft to use disputed areas, heightening regional tensions
- UN tribunal, found none of man-made islands were large enough to qualify fro EEZs, china illegally infringed Philippine’s sovereign rights to fish and develop energy resources in its own EEZ
- Phillipines adopted policy of blowing up Chinese fishing vessels intercepting contested parts of SCS
6
Q
Arctic Ocean issues
A
- tensions recently risen over governance of Arctic Ocean resources competing claims made over waters and resources
- thought to hold ~90 billion tonnes of oil
- 2007, Russia used a submarine to place a flag on the seabed at North Pole, viewed as aggressive geopolitical action
- reduction in tensions after Obama declared area of ocean off limits to exploration
- shell caused operations in Arctic waters as high cost and risk outbalances low market value of oil
7
Q
Landlocked countries and societies
A
- relative isolation of these countries plays a huge role in economic health due to greater difficulties in trading without coastline
8
Q
Challenges to countries without a coastline
A
- typically very poor and have low levels of trade
- 8/15 lowest ranking HDI countries have no coastlines, all in Africa
- handicap in moving goods to and from ports
- not benefitted from global migration and cultural idea flows that bought innovations to maritime countries
- exception = Switzerland, major financing centre and many MNC s including UBS, Botswana exports diamonds using global air networks
9
Q
Gaining access and trade of ocean
A
- under international law, landlocked countries have a right to access ocean via transit states for purpose of ‘freedom of the seas’, may be difficult and expensive to uphold
- Bolivia lost coastline to Chile in 19th century war
- passage becomes full of delays including inspections and poorly maintained roads
- Bolivia’s GDP would be 1/5 higher if it had direct access to sea, but is now poorest country in S.America
- applied to international court of justice in The Hague (Netherlands) to be given sovereign access to the sea, ordering old pacific coastline back
10
Q
Injustices for indigenous People in coastal areas
A
- many entirely dependent on fishing for livelihood
- new gold-mining development in Alaska, threatened salmon ecosystem with water pollution
- succeeded in stalling mine’s construction, large MNCs pledged to boycott gold