The world's increasing fuel needs mean countries are doing anything they can to stake their claims to any oil fields left. Now, the battle is raging over a more and more pertinent question: Who owns the North Pole?

Russia last month sent a submarine underneath the Pole, where it planted a titanium flag to claim the area in order to win drilling rights on what many believe is one of the world's largest untapped oil fields. At the time, Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay dismissed the move with a great zinger: "This isn't the 15th century. You can't go around the world and just plant flags and say, 'We're claiming this territory.'"

Russia's move followed a visit to Resolute Bay by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who traveled to the country's northern-most point to claim that "the first principle of Arctic sovereignty is -- use it or lose it." Meanwhile, Denmark, which lays claim to Greenland, has called for international talks over the North Pole.

Talks may not do any good, points out The New Republic's Josh Patashnik. Russia now claims soil samples from beneath the North Pole show the area is geologically linked to the Russian continental shelf, which would give Russia oil drilling rights. Patashnik: "I suppose [the soil sample] has a little bit more legitimacy than going around and planting flags all over the place."