The Arctic Energy Basket: Treasure Chest or Pandora's Box?

• Author: I. Smagina
• Position: Tyumen State University (Tyumen, Russia)
• Pages: 138-142

BRICS LAW JOURNAL Volume III (2016) Issue 3

BOOK REVIEW NOTES

THE aRCTIC EnERGY BaSKET:

TREaSuRE CHEST oR PanDoRa’S BoX?*

IANA SMAGINA,

Tyumen State University (Tyumen, Russia)

DOI: 10.21684/2412-2343-2016-3-3-138-142

Recommended citation: Iana Smagina, The Arctic Energy Basket: Treasure Chest or

Pandora’s Box?, 3(3) BRICS Law Journal 138–142 (2016).

The never-ending race after the world’s limited energy resources puts forward

a wide range of questions and concerns to be responded to in a short period of time.

Even with the boom in renewable sources of energy1 and the provocative forecasts of

the collapse of the oil and gas markets2 new opportunities for oil and gas exploration

and exploitation are still the focus of global attention. However, what appears new

and promising may be deceptive. The abundant yet hard to obtain Arctic oil and

gas reserves are an apt illustration of the case. The main question in this regard is

whether the Arctic is a treasure chest whose opening will free vast energy resources

for future generations or a Pandora’s Box whose opening will let loose irreversible

troubles upon humankind.

The book New Energy Basket of the World: The Arctic by Manjeet Kumar Sahu,

advocate, High Court of Jharkhand, India, ser ves as a springboard in the debate

over the benets and drawbacks of oil and gas activities in the Arctic. It provides

* Reviewed book: Manjeet Kumar Sahu, New Energy Basket of the World: The Arctic (LAP Lamber t

Academic Publishing, 2015).

1 A Renewable Energy Boom, The New York Times, April 4, 2016 (Nov. 21, 2016), available at http://www.

nytimes.com/2016/04/04/opinion/a-renewable-energy-boom.html.

2 John Vidal, The End of Oil is Closer than You Think, The Guardian, April 21, 2016 (Nov. 21, 2016), available

at https://www.theguardian.com/science/2005/apr/21/oilandpetrol.news.