The United States Just Grew by 1M Square Kilometers in Size | Hacker News Reader

The United States Just Grew by 1M Square Kilometers in Size

iflscience.com

35 pointsdanboarder19 comments

The unexpected growth spurt was not the result of strange geological forces, nor the invasion of a foreign land, but the States attempting to lay claim to its surrounding ocean-floor territory.

I would change the title to “US claims ocean-floor territory” or something similar.

This is about war with Russia. Look at where they claimed it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_claims_in_the_Ar...

https://warontherocks.com/2023/10/getting-sporty-in-russias-...

Just pull a China and build a few artificial islands out there and expand your territorial waters significantly.

Manmade structures are not recognised in international law. This is why Sealand cannot be recognised as a nation.

International law is for the countries that do not have sufficient power to act unilaterally..,

There are various reasons why it can't. The main one being that: > Since 1987, when the United Kingdom extended its territorial waters to 12 nautical miles, the platform has been in British territory.

Not really US style! As someone once said: "US is run by lawyers, and China engineer." And it is very telling how they both approach this issue of territory expansion.

People tend to use this quote to disparage the US but try asking the Uyghurs and you'll see how treating every problem as an engineering problem is not always a great idea.

If you also look at TikTok through this lens it also explains a lot about how it operates.

> “If somebody came back and said, ‘Your science is bad,’ I think the United States would listen,” Treadwell told the media. “But I don’t think science is bad. I think we’ve had very good science.”

This is a very strange way to say nothing. Why is this guy talking to the media?

He's referring to China which is doing things like constructing artificial islands to make bad faith claims to territory.

The point is that he's trying to portray this work as honest, and part of honesty means acknowledging and adjusting when you're mistaken.

China will point out the irony (from their point if view) in the USA claiming more ocean while denying China the "right" to claim Taiwan, the Philippines, and many more nations.

Added the size of two Californias. Might be useful in the future for offshore wind power and for fisheries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9OUJcbgnXg

O nein! nein! nein! Sein Vaterland muss grösser sein!

Amerika…gänzlich einzukreisen????

What's a "kilometer"? Is that even legal here?

Maybe they can now stop occupying part of Syria and stealing their oil?!

Or maybe even Gaza, in a short matter of time they can add it as well

But gas is expensive rn and I need to drive my oversized truck around.

Or a souped up wrangler that will see the offroad trails maybe once a year if its lucky

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