317 Ángel Gómez de Ágreda Climate Change in the Arctic: Beyond the North Pole or altering their territorial jurisdictions, giving rise to or modifying conflicts. Coastal areas and in particular the major deltas will be flooded. These regions tend to be very densely populated and particularly fertile. Migration brought about by such flooding will deprive those who remain in the country not only of significant manpower, but also of major productive capacity. The baselines with which territorial waters and exclusive economic zones will also be altered, thus modifying sovereignty over marine resources. All these circumstances are already taking place to a certain extent, but the process will tend to accelerate considerably in the future. In some cases this acceleration will be brought about by the same conditions that is provoking the melting process: the disappearance of the albedo, the release of methane from permafrost regions…. Here we have preferred to concentrate on the non-local effects of climate change in the Arctic on a very specific region; precisely in order to demonstrate that the phenomenon has an extraterritorial, even worldwide, characteristic, and why an understanding of the consequences in their entirety is necessary in order to truly evaluate the scope of the disappearance of polar ice. The opening up of northern navigation ocean routes means that world maps have to be redrawn. This affects not only navigation charts, but also our perception of terrestrial sphericity. Until now we unconsciously looked upon the world (except in the case of air navigation) more as a cylinder than a sphere, given that we ruled out the poles as possible navigation routes. This change of perception is equivalent to moving from flat to spherical trigonometry: subtle, but nonetheless significant. From a security and defence perspective, new fronts and possibilities arise. From a geostrategic perspective, we shall have to review many concepts that were marked by permanent ice. Many forms of understanding our world will have to change purely as a result of the opening of south-north routes. These routes could, moreover, connect with waterways whose estuaries may have been blocked until now or flowed into impassable seas. Apart from the development of coastal communities servicing these maritime routes, the river basins will probably become important lines of communication favouring the development of immense interior regions particularly rich in resources. The example of other similar regions leads us to imagine scenarios in which the major trade powers will seek to establish logistic bases. That has been the case of all maritime powers throughout history and it would be foolish to ignore the past. A more interconnected, more interdependent and exposed world, will have to face simultaneously a multitude of rapidly changing climatological conditions that will force the adaptation or displacement of millions of people. If mankind as a whole is to be capable of adapting to the numerous changes that lie ahead, it must first and foremost understand that it is not a question of dealing
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