Author(s): Martin Breum

Politics and economics

The heating Arctic has become a key issue in global politics. While Canada, China, Russia, and the United States send submarines and icebreakers to militarize the North Pole, the ice itself continues to recede, creating new trade routes and new opportunities for mining gas and oil. With more Arctic land mass than any other country, Canada is a major player in the region, claiming sovereignty over the continental shelf and the Arctic Archipelago. In 2014 the Kingdom of Denmark, through its colonial claim on Greenland, declared ownership of the entire European hemisphere of the Arctic. Denmark's claims on a territory larger than Scandinavia overlap with more than five hundred square kilometres claimed by Russia, who has planted a flag on the ocean floor underneath the North Pole. In Cold Rush Martin Breum describes an aggressively militarized Arctic, with researchers encountering Russian submarines, spy-plane pilots flying over aircraft carriers, and the inhabitants of Greenland forced into a new, contentious place in international relations. What is quietly unfolding in the polar north is turning into a "great game" for territory and for resources such as oil, uranium, and nickel, all set against a backdrop of environmental destruction caused by climate change. Cold Rush brings this story to life in vivid detail.