4/11/2011

Who owns the Oceans' Minerals?



During the last day Mrs. M  talked to us about the ocean minerals, who owns them, who can search and use them and stuff like that. Now I am writing to you about my own opinions.
1) When all 157 nations signed the Law of the Sea Treaty, all countries knew that ocean mineral deposits are property of all people, and that mining profits should be shared among other nations. Some nations do not agree on all the laws written in the Law of Sea Treaty, so that means that they are not part of the 157 nations who agreed on the laws. I think that the nations who didn’t sign, didn’t agree on sharing the final profits among other nations, this is what caused the problem. I found fair that landlocked/ developing nations should have part of the profit of the wealthy countries.
2) Wealthy nations do not want to share part of their profit to poor countries. If they do poor countries will gain money for having a better life style. Though, another way is that poor/developing countries can pool their money for ocean mining, they would gain more than they owe. Also the Law of Sea Treaty mentioned that wealthy countries should share their mining to developing countries or landlocked ones.  Since it costs a lot only wealthy nation can afford the payment. Due to the sign that the 157 countries signed they need to follow the rules mentioned in the papers.
3) Since most part of the Americas and Asia face the Pacific Ocean they should share it between North and South. For example North America can share what found with South and vice versa. Meanwhile, China, Japan can share it with Australia; and vice versa. Though since the Philippines are a poor country the profits from China or Australia should be exported to the Philippines to help; the country.
For the Arctic Ocean due to the problem of global warming two main countries which can help by sharing profits (so that the nation can gain money) are, Russia and Canada. Both of them are big countries, and can help a lot.
Meanwhile in the Atlantic Ocean due to the fact that most of North Africa is mostly poor, Western Europe with Eastern South and North America, can share their profits with Africa. This act can help raising North Africa’s economy. 
4) As you can see the Law of Sea Treaty states that ocean's minerals are property of all people and that more developed countries or wealthy countries should share their profits with nations which are landlocked or poor.

1 comment:

  1. Great suggestions here...I can see that you read all of the information.

    ReplyDelete