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00:00 Russia has reportedly found huge oil deposits in Antarctica. This claim was made by the Rosgio oil
00:06 exploration company and it has raised concern among
00:09 environmentalists and also in the British Parliament because the alleged discovery are believed to have been made in
00:15 polar territories claimed by the UK no less. Let's bring in Shirley Sidbon from our news desk. Hello to you, Shirley.
00:23 These environmental aspects of the news, drilling for oil was banned in Antarctica.
00:28 Is there a risk to see this precautionary measure overturned? There's always a risk, although of course, there's this
00:35 1976 treaty that puts a moratorium on the exploration and on the exploitation of
00:44 minerals in Antarctica and Russia is committed to this moratorium and to this treaty.
00:51 But we've seen this in the past in other areas which have used to be protected.
00:55 We've even seen this in Alaska in some areas that were protected where now there is drilling.
01:00 So yes, that's a risk and
01:03 you can think of everything that could be found in Antarctica since it's basically a huge territory with potentially huge oil
01:11 fields never
01:13 exploited before. So yes, of course many countries are looking into, are thinking about it and Russia,
01:19 well, the moratorium bans the exploration, but it allows
01:25 scientific research and it's under that that the Russians have been
01:31 going for years across
01:33 Antarctica and using
01:36 seismic surveys to find out if there is a potential oil field beneath. These images are of Vladimir Putin,
01:44 but not from Antarctica, but from the Arctic Circle where
01:48 Russia is already exploiting various fields. But yes, now the idea is going
01:54 seeing what's underneath in case things change and
01:58 this is allowed in Antarctica as well. And that way, well, people, these exploration companies, oil exploration companies,
02:06 know where the oil fields may be. They can deepen their research and
02:11 maybe be able to exploit this in the future. And this is of course a major risk because we're already extremely concerned.
02:18 There's global warming. It's going very fast,
02:22 you know, in Antarctica. We've seen this as a major threat and there's always so already so difficult to slow down
02:29 warming if you start exploring there and
02:32 you know, it can only make things worse. So of course everybody is concerned about this, all people interested in the environment.
02:38 Yeah, environmental risk, very clear. But for some people that might live far away,
02:41 they might say Antarctica, far-flung part of the world, this doesn't concern me. There's no geopolitical consequences.
02:47 But experts say there are, even with ties to the war in Ukraine. Tell us about that.
02:52 Of course, there are always links. Antarctica may be far away,
02:55 but we've seen this so many times in recent years when we talked about global warming, how everything's interconnected, of course.
03:02 But yeah, there is a geopolitical aspect in this because since the war in Ukraine,
03:09 there's been really a turnaround in the policies
03:13 because, you know, until now there was this idea of all the countries coming together, at least in appearance,
03:20 to work to protect the environment. Well, that is over now. Since the war in Ukraine, there's been growing tension around the
03:27 polar areas for that, well, for exploiting oil and energy and minerals.
03:33 And, you know, in the past, in recent years,
03:37 some countries have tried to expand the areas that are protected in Antarctica and Russia and China have blocked those efforts.
03:45 So yes, there is growing concern around this. And so now, well,
03:49 there's a fear that, you know, the various tensions in the world will also impact the environment and make the fight to
03:57 fight global warming, make it more difficult. It has that impact as well.
04:02 All right, Shirley. Shirley, thank you very much. Shirley Sitzbaum from our news desk.