Why The United States Is SO MUCH LARGER Today Than It Was In 2023

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As of January 2024, the United States grew by about 400,000 square miles of territory or larger than the state of Texas. This was done under a little known United Nations policy called the Extended Continental Shelf. So why has the United States grown so much, what do they plan to do with all their new territory, and why would the country want to much land if it's all underwater anyways?
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[@andraanzano8378]

It’s amazing to me that there’s absolutely no news coverage on this at all

[@douglasharley2440]

lol, do you seriously think this is something that the average american cares about, or even cares about caring about? 🤣 no, they do not. they care about celebrities, and their dogs, and a endless myriad of other stupid shite, but nothing of importance.

[@jamesbarrick3403]

This is the news. I get almost all of my news from youtubers. Don't pretend you can count on legacy media... wake up.

[@melodeeplath8002]

Well..... the media is not our friend.

[@indianastan]

That's WHY they are called "" fake news"" for a reason

[@raafmaat]

its just arbitrary water zones, no real borders are being changed

[@timtwoface]

That's pretty significant - I was just reading up on this and didn't realize Canada did much of this a decade ago. I knew we have the largest coastline in the world, but...dang. 😲

[@the_best_jr9884]

No that's Chile

[@timtwoface]

@the_best_jr9884 incorrect, it's just the longest country...but nowhere close to Canada #1 and Norway #2

[@yourmadlilbro]

@@the_best_jr9884nope lol canada and norway top 2 just look at all of canadas coastline no way u think chile has more

[@timtwoface]

@@yourmadlilbro Exactly: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_length_of_coastline In order it's Canada #1 by far, then Norway, Indonesia, Russia, Phillipines...Chile is #19 on the list. Canada clearly is a huge landmass surrounded by water on nearly 3 full sides, but Norway is #2 because it has so many fjords that add so many kms of coastline. Most of these other countries don't have so many fjords that beef up the coastline numbers....hence why a country like Australia is a continent-sized country, yet with its smooth coastlines its coastline length is like 30% of that of Norway.

[@philmcleod111]

Even Canada is smarter then the USA

[@benusmaximus3601]

How has this got virtually no news coverage from mainstream media?

[@raafmaat]

its just arbitrary water zones, no real borders are being changed

[@livinginvancouverbc2247]

There's no angle on this story for making people angry or afraid.

[@GoToPhx]

@@livinginvancouverbc2247 Facts!

[@Encolas]

@@raafmaatThere’s no such thing as arbitrary when it comes to drilling

[@Dominodude55]

They're too busy talking about trans people to care about real news.

[@ganjafi59]

Quick correction. Norway has opened for commercial exploration for deep sea mining. With the possibility to mine any discoveries. Open mining is still not fully legal, yet. No mining has taken place as of February 2024.

[@user-lh5fp7bf2c]

Yea thats gonna be so much better than a 3 ft diameter hole in sea floor from oil extraction right lol?

[@ganjafi59]

@@user-lh5fp7bf2c were you able to watch this video or type this comment without those holes all over the world?

[@MrAsianPie]

We should call the underwater territories the state of Atlantis

[@KCJbomberFTW]

They should get three senators

[@beanshady]

Darn it.. I thought I was the only one who thought of this 😁

[@nicklibby3784]

*United States of Alantis 🇺🇲🗽🦅🤠👍😉😏

[@Sennmut]

I have a sinking feeling you are right.

[@longiusaescius2537]

Nice

[@savannah115]

Man, the purchase of Alaska is looking more and more like one of the best deals in American history.

[@YandereDevSings]

Now that they claimed that tiny chunk of water above the Northern Mariana Islands I’m gonna go there

[@dogwithhat947]

This should be big news but I had no clue this even happened

[@mmmcounts]

I'm pretty sure Canada is working on mapping the Arctic Ocean floor in a similar way for the purpose of making a claim on the North Pole. That will probably be bigger news when it happens. Russia would have wanted to have a competing claim, but they're a little busy with being a global pariah so. I guess they miss out. Denmark via Greenland is the other competitor for North Pole supremacy. But yeah, this is pretty cool too. Hope we get some good stuff out of it.

[@DW-op7ly]

The USA, Russia, ,China are claiming rights of passage . In the Canadians North West Passage Where the decision will be left up to the international community to decide

[@mmmcounts]

@DW-op7ly I guess the US has Alaska up in that area, but even there I don't think it generates the same sort of claim that Canada has. I'm very mystified by China. How could they make any type of claim? We know where their borders are. They don't, because they think they own Taiwan, but is anyone actually arguing that China extends north of Russia and Canada and Greenland?

[@DW-op7ly]

@mmmcounts The USA is already projecting their borders into Canadian waters to include a offshore oil deposit in the Canadian North As for China, Taiwan is a part of China. The Chinese living on that Islands lost their civil war in China and fled to Taiwan in the 1940s where the USA blocked the commie Chinese from finishing the job With that said I say tough sheeet to the Chinese and Taiwan is independent unless they can changed it When it comes to those Islands in the SCS the Chinese have a 12th century claim to them when the (Mongolian) Yuan Dynasty of China was conquering lands looking to expand Where the Philippines has a 15th century map from their Spanish colonizers and the Philippines did not claim these islands until 1971 after oil was found in the region But then the Chinese control these islands even made some fake islands so I say tough sheeet to the Philippines Just like I say the same to the peoples whose land I live on

[@maggienelson4437]

This episode was worth the wait to see it. Thank you Geoff! :D

[@SmithsMuseum]

Taught me about an international policy i didnt know anything about. Hit all the common questions i can think of. 8/10, needs less clickbait title, or a a little bit better pacing/rehashing.

[@GetRichEducation]

What an excellent and timely video, Geoff! We like your new setup and we’re rooting for you over here! 👏

[@crazyjimheath]

Great work Geoff

[@marynadononeill]

Great report!

[@coreyf1204]

Geoff coming out with another banger!!! 🔥🔥🔥

[@mousemansportcards]

This is really nice work!!

[@AK-qc8ix]

How do you know drilling for oil in that arctic region would be “devastating” to the environment?

[@realdreamerschangetheworld7470]

This was an incredibly interesting an informative, thank you. First I’m hearing of this!!

[@AhJodie]

Wow, interesting! Thank you!

[@friendoengus]

aloha, geoff thank you for providing content fyi, _antipodes_ is _four_ syllables (not three)

[@donaldcreswell4915]

I knew I wasn't crazy for thinking it was pronounced "ann tih poe deez"!

[@ajcollins623]

I think both pronunciations are valid. So does Wikipedia it seems

[@friendoengus]

@@ajcollins623 good point looking around, yes, folks use both at the same time, validity is determined by usage (not by wikipedia, thankfully) geoff's usage here is the first time i've come across the _aunti-poads_ version, which apparently (based on the thumbs-up icon) i am not alone in finding distracting

[@digitalnomad9985]

@@donaldcreswell4915 You're a better man than me, I only thought I wasn't crazy.

[@michaelsadams524]

Fascinating!

[@benprovan]

It’s interesting how the territories don’t fit an Intuitive expansion beyond the continents. Some are not contiguous with the exclusive economic zone, but more like islands. I would have imagined essentially that these expand outward from the exclusive economic zone into the edge of the continental shelf. Curious why that’s not the case

[@316bonnie1]

Thank you very informative, educational and relevant

[@callenclarke371]

Excellent content.

[@mitchtickets]

nice new set

[@revolutionaryhamburger]

As an American, I Iook at this underwater land grab and can only say "more, more, more!"

[@andrewhatton1606]

That’s how life works 😂😂 just like the bigger and better dude takes your girl friend. You understand

[@dcseain]

Just fulfilling our Manifest Destiny ;-)

[@erichimes3062]

As a member of Generation X, writing as a millennial, I see beginning comments with: “as a/an…” as an absolute win 🏆

[@YandereDevSings]

As an American I’m excited to see that there’s more area you could hypothetically drive a boat to and still have access to American Netflix and stuff (if you even have internet out there)

[@TheTrex9000]

We can open a McDonalds in the Arctic now!

[@mjf1036]

very interesting development. great topic to highlight. I do take exception to the assertion that exploiting resources north of Alaska will equal an environmental disaster. Sure we have seen disasters such as Exon Valdez, Deep Water Horizon, Fukushima, Chernobyl. But most everyday we have no major events and no one wants to pollute the planet. with that said have you seen the current day lithium mines? now those are environmental and Human disasters!

[@livinginvancouverbc2247]

Well, then imagine a lithium mine on the bottom of the Arctic Ocean.

[@benmcreynolds8581]

This is why I really think we should commit to utilizing a ton of modern advanced nuclear energy options. It's the best ways we could combine things to make a solid electrical power grid.

[@daniellysohirka4258]

@@benmcreynolds8581 I diamond drilled at a Uranium mine underground for three years. We have the most Uranium in the world in northern Saskatchewan at 60% of it. And the motto of the company was Clean Air Energy! The mills formed U3O8 which is Yellowcake. France and India bought lots of of it for their Power Plants. Just the Plants in France alone power 1/4 of Europe maybe more.

[@rathael1428]

@@livinginvancouverbc2247 Because it is such a massive and expensive undertaking, they can't just use what is practically slave labor to mine down there like they do on the surface. Thy would also have ALL of the eyes on them and have to do things right environmentally.

[@bryanfreeland]

It was an unnecessary comment that gave him a chance to throw his political bent out there while deviating from the topic of the video.

[@jsbrads1]

There is no reason to believe we couldn’t safely remove oil from the North of Alaska. Obviously strip mining with current techniques may be polluting and I would support a very restrictive policy until things improve.

[@Coolguyjason]

Great video, thank you! I noticed in the last couple of videos on the channel, the generic youtuber background music has been on while you are talking. Can you go back to just having music when not talking? I just find it hard to track with the two competing. Also, the specific track you are using while talking I associate with other channels background photos that I watch.

[@MADHIKER777]

Facinating!

[@jasonoats]

Great video! Very informative on a subject that really never makes it to the public. One thing - you said "drilling for oil here would be devastating for the arctic environment". What are you basing this on? I know that drilling has its risks of spills and such, but are you confident that we could not find a solution - especially in the future - that minimizes these risks sufficiently? Also, we have to keep in mind that if we did not lay claim to this area, that another country may be able to utilize that area - and they would not necessarily be subject to our environmental standards (perhaps there are international standards of some kind?).

[@Furluge]

He isn't confident. He's just repeating a tenant of his religion.

[@topplacetoLive]

Thanks for explaining why the United States has grown since 2023. Interesting insights!

[@philmcleod111]

All the Migrants need some place to live

[@Lambert7785]

thank you, good to know

[@srdxxx]

...on and under the ocean floor. I spent quite a bit of time awhile back trying to find out if lobsters and clams, etc, were included in this. I could never find anything in the treaty or anywhere else that clarifies it.

[@derrickgl]

This is wylde yo

[@CosmicStargoat]

Just a shout out...I love your channel. In the late 1960s, I was in college and took a lot of geography, geology and earth-science courses. I also took a lot of math and physics. These courses hurt my GPA Average, but my philosophy was to get my money's worth in college. No regrets.

[@digitalnomad9985]

Absolutely. Learning was always the point of the exercise for me in school.

[@ram0166]

I’d like to see an explanation of your statement that drilling for oil would devastate the Arctic Ocean.

[@GTM9164]

Curious to see what this means for China’s claim to the south china sea

[@paulbedichek5177]

China is the only one who thinks they deserve any more land. Like Russia,they will likely fracture and lose territories.

[@spaceengineeringempire4086]

Well the claims can only exist as long as they don’t conflict with others legal territory and or other conflicted zones.

[@NeostormXLMAX]

@@spaceengineeringempire4086they did conflict, the usa just claimed it through force, california used to belong to mexico dummy

[@DW-op7ly]

Much like the waters and land the USA is taking

[@mwojcik2]

Geoff says in the video that the ECS doesn't include the water, just the land under it. So even if China established an ECS claim on the land under the South China Sea, that wouldn't make the SCS part of their territorial waters or even exclusive economic area.

[@trappedkitty5335]

"Theirs to claim" has no apostrophe. Speaking of news that hasn't been made widely public, does everyone know that we're subsidizing manufacturing in the US to bring jobs back, choking off our dependence on imports? Europe is bustling to follow suit and it all spells the socialization of companies who take the handouts. That could mean better regulation and less monopolies, but that remains to be seen.

[@AdamLiechty]

Interesting! Why is the video of the globe a mirror image at 6:47?

[@SWabakken]

0:25 "land under water" - better known as "water"

[@damham5689]

Does this extend the US territorial / maritime zone ?

[@nickbob2003]

I saw another comment about this so I know I’m not the only one, I don’t think premiers are the way to go. Imho it doesn’t really help to premier when you are already consistent on uploading every week at the same time. Obviously I’m not the KZbinr here so I don’t have any real data but from my experience I am more likely to skip over a video that has been in my sub box for 24 hours already since I have seen the thumbnail a decent bit already and in my brain that means I have either watched it or I am not interested in it. I feel like it just conditions me to ignore the video until I’ve run out of other stuff to watch and I take a closer look at my sub box to see if I missed anything. Love the content just thought I would say something in case it can help and nothing gets improved without constructive criticism.

[@raafmaat]

yeah, a video with a long premiere will instantly get less excitement and it actually lowers my respect for the youtuber.. if they do alot of premieres i even unsub

[@user-pj1qe1yk4s]

I know they are both allies but I wonder how Canada feels about the claim north of Alaska. Seems like it creeps into a bit of Canadian "sovereignty"

[@christianjackson3524]

Canada is just a US client state

[@seanrodgers1839]

I was going to note this. It definitely tries to claim Canada's part, and it believe that there is current dispute going on, IIRC.

[@mikemotorbike4283]

@@seanrodgers1839 look at Alaska just below it; it may be a shalf

[@JollyOldCanuck]

On one hand it feels like a slight violation of Canadian Arctic sovereignty as the claims seem to overlap somewhat, on the other hand it extends our naval buffer zone against Russia which is always a good thing.

[@paulbedichek5177]

Worst thing we did against Canada was Biden cancelling Keystone 2,at great expense they are trying to get to the Pacific with a pipeline,so the prices Canada gets for oil should go way up. No country has a friend as the United sates has in Canada.

[@coloneljjhawkins926]

I would hardly call the continental shelf rule "barely known." It is one of the most often cited reasons for territorial claims in modern ICJ courts.

[@nathanoher4865]

He may be referring to people in general

[@Mark_Bayer]

Lets go!!!

[@juliane__]

8:40 No it is not effectively larger. It must be approved first, i guess during this year before it is legally binding.

[@ultmiddle4991]

Phenomenal 😮

[@discoverglobeliving]

Historical, social, and political factors contribute to the growth of nations. Thanks for the insightful explanation!

[@tkralva.6668]

Surely Canada can and should put in claims for the area above Alaska, as it is also close to their land mass, and part of their continental shelf. It feels dangerous giving it to the USA.

[@EsotericBibleSecrets]

Basically, in Civilization 6 terms, America gained a few more tiles.

[@lucienskinner-savallisch5399]

Wow, its hard to believe that an achievement 21 years in the making has received nearly no coverage in the media. At least our claims are rock solid, cause I KNOW Russia is gonna want some of that Arctic oil

[@sm1522]

Big fan of the channel, but the background music is not a positive change. It's distracting

[@MonomaniacalTV]

0:08 Geoff why did you exclude Puerto Rico from this map of th U.S. and it's claimed territory?

[@uhohhotdog]

Also didn’t include all the other territories

[@gsftom]

Don’t do notifications bc I am already buried in messages. Watch all videos that I see from u, but don’t ever watch upcoming only bc it is not in front of me when it is available to view. Just fyi. Love yr videos.

[@Naturenerd1000]

Does Amaerica have more islands now?

[@burpinglight9415]

Hopefully this growing industry will help the development of subnautica like technology and bases

[@alansewell7810]

I thought this was what it was when I saw the video title. The USA owns more rights to ocean area than any other country, due to the large radius around mid-ocean islands like Hawaii and the Aleutians. France is surprisingly #2, due to its ownership of mid-ocean islands. If we're including land only, and no inland or territorial waters, the USA is a wee bit larger than Canada and China a bit larger than both. Russia still outguns everybody in land area, being about twice as big as the USA, Canada, and China.

[@onestate3074]

Can we build a Walmart? Maybe a parking lot?

[@SkeetRadar]

I really hope they don't over-exploit these regions, but who am I kidding.

[@CanadaMMA]

The extended continental self law is going to trigger wars in the future. :-(

[@ssg9offical]

Frl ong.

[@YandereDevSings]

At least there’s new topics for upcoming call of duty games

[@backpackpepelon3867]

People who thinks only China do shit like this have no idea.

[@NeostormXLMAX]

@@backpackpepelon3867the usa is the king of foreign wars and territory invasion and funding terrorism 😂😂😂

[@siyacer]

​@@NeostormXLMAXsilence pooh

[@randymeister4064]

How exactly would drilling in the arctic be detrimental?

[@edwardhoward4708]

I’m going to speculate that the difference between drilling in the arctic, and in other places is that the metabolic activity in the Arctic is much lower. so any spilled or escaped oil would take longer to break down.

[@friendoengus]

for starters, inevitable major spills?

[@jasonoats]

@@friendoengus, of the 700+ oil rigs that exist, how many of those have had major spills?

[@friendoengus]

@@jasonoats no idea, jason and not an area of interest not advocating for or against oil rigs just answered randy's question we had an alaska spill and a gulf of mexico spill already, and they were plenty bad enough do we really need ocean drilling at all? it is not that hard to get energy the hard part is getting the oligarchy to release the tech

[@BS-vx8dg]

I no longer subscribe to this channel; I had just found the content rather insipid and (to me) not informative. But this was different! I learned about something I had not known, and it was even significant! I'm glad this still shows up in my YT feed.

[@Sennmut]

Maybe the new regions could be turned into habitat for Environmentalists.

[@ryanhurley4038]

Why would drilling North of Alaska be devastating for the Artic enviroment? I'll wait....

[@yesyes1842]

US is not signer of the United Nations convention of the law of the sea (UNCLOS). But it very much wants to use it to extend its own territory. The definition of wanting your cake and eating it too.

[@isaackellogg3493]

🎶Elbow Room, Elbow Room! Got to, got to get us some Elbow Room! It’s the Extendedcontinentalshelf or bust, In God We Trust There’s a new land down therrrre!🎶

[@isaackellogg3493]

Since 2018 we’ve basically been the SeaQuest timeline.

[@BryceFasig-qy9tf]

Good

[@regularbob]

I LOVE this channel and podcast! It is so nice to have a podcast that is educational and interesting without all of the influence of negativity...I even stopped subscribing to Joe Rogan and started making this my main podcast to listen to...Joe Rogan is fine but I find that he gets repetitive and he also pushes a lot of vanity on his show..I like stuff that is easy to listen to and uninfluenced by pop stars, comedians and the like...Anyways, I just wanted to say THANKS! You guys are doing great work and having a positive impact on society❤

[@chrizthewiz4262]

There needs to be a subnautica to actually claim these seas

[@benmcreynolds8581]

It's stuff like this why I really think we should commit to utilizing a ton of modern advanced nuclear energy options. It's the best ways we could combine things to make a solid electrical power grid. There's no way we can continue to go on with this EV resources extraction and drilling for oil and think we will make any sort of improvement

[@BurchellAtTheWharf]

5:10 this makes me think that they are tryn to infringe upon Canadian waters😅

[@brandonf1260]

But they aren't Canadian waters

[@rbryanhull]

Wonder if this will affect cruise ship casinos? Does this expand the federal territorial waters?

[@robertkent4929]

Manifest Destiny: The Continental Shelf Edition

[@stevieboy366]

There are overlapping claims in some of these underwater territories

[@ianshaver8954]

I’m sure the US Navy would be happy to clarify that.

[@trapperjohn6089]

Love your little threads logo, it looks like a pubic hair. X is where it’s at.

[@KevinGerhart1701]

Anyone else thinking about seaQuest?

[@johnm9263]

"drilling for oil would be devastating for the environment" i dont think you realize how drilling for oil works let me put it this way: it is a "could be" not a "will be" (and would is just a different way of saying will)

[@CASSpeluso]

interesting

[@seannordeen5019]

Hold on a minute. The United States refused to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea III which defines things like Exclusive economic zone, continental shelf, etc, due to issues with one major part of the treaty over seabed mineral rights. As a party outside of the treaty, the US can't claim the rights given by the treaty. This seems like a questionable bureaucratic act as though there was a push in the US Senate late last year to finally ratify it decades later, it went no where.

[@clausbohm9807]

Imagine someone starting a war over this issue ... Also what if we can start building cities on the continental shelf ...???

[@approxnobody]

Are you sure that the U.S. can claim these extensions to our continental shelf without being signitor to UNCLOS?

[@Luneytoon]

Missile silos anyone?

[@johnl5316]

we do NOT know that drilling in the arctic would be bad. The USA already does it in Alaska

[@britishginge4474]

Surly the one North of Alaska falls in Canada's territory

[@xviper2k]

A sliver of it maybe. Most of it is, as you said, north of Alaska, meaning it's not Canadian.

[@stickynorth]

Normally I'm not a fan of instant land grabs and territorial disputes... HOWEVER, who is gonna stop the USA from taking these areas? Canada? I don't think so... They rightfully belong to the USA just the same way Canada extended it's EEZ several times to prevent over-fishing off Newfoundland and Northern BC... These just make sense... And I say this as a patriotic Canadian... Just don't exploit them in the way I'm assuming they will be when these declarations are made... I.e. it becomes a capitalistic free for all for oil and fishing rights generally speaking...

[@Feyflyer]

Uhm... it does mess with canadian northern territorial claims tho. And the canadian govt doesn't have to recognize it... but they have said they'd like to work together with America, and Even though the US refuses to ratify the un law of the sea...

[@FullOnStriker]

@@Feyflyer because the US is a sovereign nation, why do we need to be bend the knee to an overlord? The UN can eat it, why do you want a coalition of the most corrupt class of people(politicians and bureaucrats) with no loyalty to you or your country making rules. The People of the US are God of Us govt, not the UN, nor any other outside force. Make your discontent with the US not adhering to laws imposed by an outside that are antithetical to the US make sense. Sounds more like an attempt at puppetry to me.

[@DW-op7ly]

Yet the Americans complain about China claiming reefs and islands in the South China sea, using a historical claim from the 12th century

[@Feyflyer]

That is completely different... Seeing as China never drew that map, it's not 12th century, and "the Americans" are enforcing others boundaries. Not their own colonial ideals. We found the Chinese sympathizer folks

[@DW-op7ly]

You Americans have no shame the map is already drawn as of 2024 on the land you are taking And they didn’t need to draw a map the Dynasty that was doing the land conquering was a Mongolian Dynastic rule back then But then the Philippines even acknowledges the Treasure fleets that came 200 years later When the land was still ruled by tribal Chieftains, the was no country Philippines at the time As they use theiir Spanish Colonizers 15 th century maps Where the Philippines made their 1960s claim a few years after oil was found 👇 The Chinese Treasure Fleet in 15th century Philippines (2) It was the people of our archipelago who discovered Magellan and the Europeans in 1521, not the other way around, as most Filipinos were taught by our grade-school textbooks. Our islands and their inhabitants were well-known to a larger, richer world that of Chinese emperors and scholars and Arab traders, as early as the 9th, even 6th centuries. And certainly by 1000 A.D., our shores were regular ports of call in the trade with China, then the most powerful nation on earth. Chinese chronicles, European archaeologists and the diggings in our pre-colonial burial grounds prove that those ancient Filipinos used fine porcelain, weights and measures imported from China, and recorded written contracts. Chao-Ju-Kua reported that Chinese traders visited Ma-I (Luzon) regularly, leaving silks, porcelain and metal utensils on the beaches of designated islands, and returning weeks later to collect payment in the form of beeswax, gold dust, carabao horn, ginger, cinnamon or garlic. It was an import-export system run on a reliable honor system with unquestioned good faith. (Tell that to our Bureau of Customs.) “Filipinos had long been literate when Magellan came.” writes Harvard historian Laurence Bergreen, one of the sources of this article. In their Middle Ages, it was the Europeans, the recently Christianized descendants of the Goths, Visigoths, Gauls and Anglo-Saxons, who were rude barbarians leading brutish lives as serfs, knights or marauding barons. They often ate tasteless, half-rotten meat (salt was a rarity) and succumbed in their un-lettered thousands, to plagues and feudal wars. When Magellan’s Spanish Armada hove into view in March 1521, the natives of Homonhon in the Visayas must have taken pity on the small black ships with tattered sails and scruffy, starving, disoriented sailors, for they sent a small rowboat packed with rice, coconuts and bananas to their rescue. On the next island, the white, bearded strangers were feted in a bamboo palace with a banquet of roast fish, pork, turtle eggs and palm wine, by a native king whose queen wore a black-and-white gown, red lips and nails, while a quartet of young, topless damsels played music on various gongs and drums. Those early Filipinos had been more accustomed to the tall, prosperous, Chinese ships with a trio of feathery sails stiffened with battens, for the China trade had been in place for at least 500 years. During the Ming Dynasty, Filipinos enjoyed the visits of the Treasure Fleet (1405-1500) of Admiral Cheng Ho (Zhen He) a huge, 7-ft tall, powerful eunuch, who had built 1,500 massive, 500-ft ships in a giant shipyard in Nanking with the help of 30,000 workers. The luxurious ships, each manned by 1,000 sailors ruled the South Pacific and the Indian Ocean. They had staterooms with gold fittings, bronze cannon, bulkheads and watertight compartments. Some ships carried only food, including potted orange trees (which saved the Chinese from the European scurvy); others only water, or horses, troops and weapons. They had a communication system of flags, lanterns, bells, gongs and carrier pigeons; nautical charts, astronomy maps, measuring instruments and clocks using incense sticks. The Treasure Fleet reached Africa, Indiaand Australia, stopping en-route in the islands of our archipelago. It was discontinued for a time, when another emperor took over, but resumed and lasted till 1500. At that time, our land consisted of thousands of islands with pristine, enchanting ecosystems. Our people lived along sand beaches, the banks of crystalline rivers and magical lakes where they fished; farmed the rice fields and orchards between the peaks of the Cordilleras, majestic waterfalls and volcanoes; they hunted, dug for gold, wove cloth from plants and grasses, sang and danced, swam and feasted. They were loosely organized into small fiefdoms, ruled by occasionally-warring chieftains, attended by household serfs and slave workers and warriors. They believed in the spirits of earth, wind, fire, trees and water and in a supreme being, Bathala, who would take care of everything. Their women were priestesses and rulers, with a degree of sexual freedom that would have made the X and Y-Generations blush. But the Chinese were not interested in conquest or territorial aggrandizement. Their purposes were trade and diplomacy. That was what our ancestors expected when they first saw the Spanish Armada. Phil star

[@R7AWSUM]

"How are they allowed to do so?" Ha, that's a good one.

[@snapperl]

Id be interested in seeing how much of this claimed shelfland just "happens " to have oil.

[@olanfield7139]

An important note to this is that the US is the only country to never ratify UNCLOS. While we make these claims, they will not be acknowledged for the one supernational organization that helps sort through overlapping continental shelf claims. Ratifying UNCLOS has been proposed to the Senate in Nov 2023, but still not approved by congress - largely because the U.S. doesn’t want to surrender determination to a third-party organization. As the Arctic continues to melt, the Arctic claims will become more competitive as the region become accessible to mineral extraction. But, until we ratify UNCLOS the claims are a little bit pointless on the international stage. Also, even when we ratify it, the claims take between 15-20 years to be verified or dismissed by UNCLOS. Canada and Denmark (Greenland) have claims that won’t be concluded on until the 2030s.

[@johnlabus7359]

Strategically, and as the globe warms, claiming more in the arctic circle is is not only important for natural resources but likely also militarily. ...wouldn't it be?

[@Explosion-]

Yep. Much larger in debt than last year. Also does doing underwater mining there really possible cost effectively? How deep are the ocean floor there? Did the US claim it for future resource purposes or parking lot for submarines if it's deep enough.?

[@deborahmorton547]

I've heard worse, so it's okay for me.

[@SIRKHEEM]

wait yall said lithium under there???? yeah we’ll take the most mineral rich spots preeesh

[@johndii2194]

Podcast

[@Feyflyer]

Interesting way of describing thia for newbies to oceanographry... You forgot to mention that this entire northern claim is in dispute with 3 other northern nations... canada and russia included. I feel this is critical info as america is not just. Larger. Its claiming to be. A major distinction.

[@eddiebezzell]

So are the inhabitants

[@-GBD-]

You should fire your painter! Was it you? 😎

[@garyfarmaner6440]

Canada has already noted the conflicting claims in the north, and pledged to work with the USA on this. Of course, the UN will not want to piss off the US, despite the US not even being a signatory to the convention that allows for all this.

[@Bluesonofman]

I mean Canada belongs to the US. However for now we play nice and most likely just share it. America and Canada will probably have the same companies developing it so having unrestricted development rights and ignoring the overlap wouldn’t be a issue.

[@isabellaereshki]

This isn’t entirely a new story. Continental shelf claims have been a topic of needs and debate since russia was still called the Soviet Union and everyone was denying climate change and saying the poles would never thaw out and most people in the us said it didn’t matter and wasn’t worth bothering with because the technology didn’t yet exist to even consider extracting or safely extracting resources from the continental shelves and no one knew the side affects and then around 2000 to 2015 time frame British petroleum had that huge accident in the Gulf of Mexico and all deep water drilling and potential exploration of continental shelfs was pretty much tabled and put on hold indefinitely for a while with some sort of moratorium or ban. But now with the arctic thawing out they want to put in their claim while they still can before the whole Arctic Ocean territory becomes effectively a Russian sea or lake or enclave and to continue acting as a defensive shield for Canada.

[@jesselancaster7]

The News tells you nothing going on