* Water and Ice dominate region * Pacific Realm: Covers half the globe, tens of thousands of islands * Antarctica: land weighed down by planet's largest accumulation of permanent ice * Major Issue: * Climate Change * Who owns the sea?

* Sea Hemisphere * Vast area, but not a lot land * Small population (12 million)

* Colonized by French, British, and American’s primarily * New Zealand, Chile and Indonesia also still have colonies * Independent States: Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu * Microstates: Tuvalu, Kiribati, Nauru and Palau * Most states still heavily dependent on foreign aid

* Fierce competition of control of the sea around Pacific Islands

* Territorial Sea: where all the rights of a coastal state would prevail * High Seas: free open and unfettered by national interests * When colonization first started wanted small territorial sea * Now states are trying to expand them * Question arose over division of the seas

* 1945 US started * Truman issued proclamation that US jurisdiction and control included all resources in and on the continental shelf * Others start to claim more of the sea * 1952 Declaration of Santiago: South American countries claimed exclusive fishing rights up to a distance of 200 nautical miles

* United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea * Took 3 decades of negotiation * Authorized 12 mile territorial sea for all countries * 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone – coastal state would have total economic right (resources belong to the state and they can do with them as they see fit) * Microstates and Colonial Powers obtained vast areas of the ocean

* An exclusive economic zone (EEZ) is a sea zone prescribed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea over which a state has special rights over the exploration and use of marine resources, including energy production from water and wind. It stretches from the seaward edge of the state's territorial sea out to 200 nautical miles from its coast. * Competition to control Pacific Islands to have access to their EEZ * Some countries bought fishing rights from island neighbors * Maritime boundaries still a work in progress

* Some countries too close for UNCLOS borders to work * Timor Gap * UNCLOS favored Timor * Australia withdraws in 2002 * 2005 agreement reached where Australia, give 50% of revenue from disputed area to Timor

* Melanesia * Micronesia * Polynesia

* Papua New Guinea (largest in region) * 700 communities speaking different languages * Most populous region * Development along the coast * Mostly subsistence farmers * Half of population is illiterate * Large amount of resource and agricultural wealth (most goes to Australia, then Japan)

* Solomon Islands * 120 languages * Violence between groups has occurred, especially after WWII when US troops relocated some groups

* New Caledonia (Still controlled by France) * 43% Melanesian * 37% French- most descendants of penal colony * Melanesians want independence

* Fiji * 51% Melanesian * 44% South Asian (mostly Indian: worked on sugar plantations) * Conflict between groups led to revisions to constitution * Violence reoccurred when first Indian was elected Prime Minister in 1999 * Effected economy by stifling foreign aid and tourism

* High Islands: volcanic, wetter, better soils, larger populations * Low Islands (atolls): coral, drought, fishing can coconut palm, smaller communities * Marshall Islands: Used by US to test Nuclear Weapons * Northern Mariana Islands: US sends aid in return for military bases * Guam: still a US territory, military base and tourist destination * Nauru: Richest in region due to selling of phosphates

* Site of US nuclear tests. * US detonated twenty three nuclear devices there. * Indigenous people were moved “temporarily”, and due to fallout remain unable to return. They receive monetary compensation from the US government. * In 1968, the US government said it was safe to return… but in 1978, residents tested positive for radioactive isotopes in their bodies – causing miscarriages and other health problems. The US government wound up paying $150 million in damages. * A 1954 test was more powerful than predicted, and created widespread radioactive contamination – including 23 crew members of a Japanese fishing boat. This was the inspiration for Godzilla, and yes – I’m being serious.

* Heart of the Pacific * High and Low islands * Lighter skin and wavier hair * Uniformity of culture among islands * Face natural disasters from Sea

* 1959: Hawaii becomes 50 th state * Some gain independence from British * Others still under foreign control * Globalization threatens traditional culture

* Covered in ice 2 miles thick * “white desert” * No permanent settlements * 70 lakes under ice * Whale and Seal hunters * Roald Amundsen (Nor) first to reach South Pole

* National claims to Antarctic Land * Why? * 1961: Antarctic Treaty: ensures continued scientific collaboration, prohibits military activities, protects the environment and holds national claims * 1991 concerns it doesn’t do enough to control resource exploitation * 1991: Wellington Agreement: restricts claims to the sea, even though some maps show claims continue into ocean (main concern don’t know where to start the claims due to the ice shelves in Southern Ocean)