Long after the trek across the Beiring Strait, the colonization of the West by the pilgrims, and every covetable piece of earth on this planet was claimed by national governments and land rushes, there still remains a very well known chunk of real estate with no official owner: the North Pole.
Yes, you read that right.
The North Pole is not technically owned by anyone.
That means Santa Claus and Superman likely chose the Arctic as their home (in Superman’s case, his home away from home) to avoid the problems associated with zoning variances, permits, and property taxes (and most certainly to stay away from HOAs).
Although no one has been able to produce a deed to the North Pole with their name on it, that hasn’t stopped various countries from either outright claiming ownership or at least staking a claim.
Denmark, for example, has concluded that the Arctic is geologically part of Greenland, which is controlled by Denmark, so they’ve officially pronounced it theirs. Russia has done its own research to conclude that Russia’s claim is superior.
The United States, Norway, and Canada, have also expressed their claims publicly.
Why the sudden (sudden when you look at the timeline of when the lands in our world were claimed) interest in the Arctic? Apparently, it’s because of a piece of information we have now that we didn’t before: about 30% of the undiscovered natural gas in the world is has been hiding in the North Pole.
This issue is not likely to be resolved any time soon, but if the powers that be want my opinion, leave the frozen tundra to the guy who magically delivers gifts to all the nice people of the world every December and the invulnerable hero that hailed from Krypton.
