Race to the Bottom

Russian explorers in submersibles planted their nation's flag on the seafloor beneath the North Pole, in a move that signals the competition between Arctic nations to claim the oil and mineral wealth believed to exist under the rapidly disappearing polar ice cap. While Russians heralded the expedition's heroic success, the Canadian Foreign Minister peevishly responded, "This isn't the 15th Century. You can't go around the world and just plant flags and say 'We're claiming this territory.'" You tell 'em.