万花筒 Kaleidoscope2007-10-24&10-25, 海岸巡逻队紧盯北极（在线收听）

A town of about 4,000 inhabitants on the edge of Alaska’s North Slope, Barrow calls itself the top of the world. It’s the northernmost settlement in the United States, one of the northernmost in the world. As temperatures continue to rise in the northern reaches of the arctic, the pack ice here is open for a longer and longer period each year. With increasing ship traffic and the promise of far more, it's here in Barrow that the US Coast Guard is pushing to build its first base in the Arctic Ocean. Admiral Thad W. Allen is commandant of the Coast Guard.

All we know is we have an operating environment. So we have some responsibilities for it in this changing and it's incumbent on, not only myself as the leader of the Coast Guard, but I think United States in general ought to take a look at the potential things that could happen up there, be prepared for them.

The Coast Guard says that the base would speed responses to cruise ship accidents or spills from oil tankers which the guard believes would eventually carry shipments from Scandinavia to Asia through the Bering Strait. These arctic routes could cut 5000 miles off the shipments that currently travel through the Panama or Suez Canals. Moreover, milder conditions in the Arctic Ocean could open the door to prospecting for oil, gas, and mineral deposits.

And quite frankly, there is a large issue here related to the private sector--- oil and gas exploration.

The United Nation’s law---the Sea Treaty says that countries can expand their territorial claims well beyond their shores. I think there's tremendous urgency to pass you know , a law that sees, sets, sets up a framework to resolve differences in opinion regarding, claims on continental shelf and so forth, but it’s much broader than that.

While the US has yet to ratify the UN treaty, and any prospecting could be years away, Coast Guard officials like Admiral W.Allen feel that politics and environment aside, his agency will need to provide the same services that it performs in the Atlantic or the Pacific.