Their claims have occasionally overlapped, as is the case with Hans Island, a source of dispute between Denmark and Canada.

But according to Frederic Lasserre, a geography professor at Laval University in Quebec, a new Cold War is unlikely.

"There is very little chance that these countries will develop tense relations because of these climate changes," he said, noting that they have shown a willingness to resolve their differences through negotiation.

"Most of the exploitable natural resources ... are located relatively close to their shores, so they are already in the countries' exclusive economic zones" recognised by the neighbouring nations, he added.

Nonetheless, Russia and Canada have already decided to beef up their military presence in the Arctic. Just to be safe.

"The Arctic is a very harsh environment," Canada's chief of defense staff, General Walter Natynczyk, said last month.

"If someone were to invade the Canadian Arctic, my first task would be to rescue them," he said.

While there may not be an armed conflict in sight, global warming has already claimed victims.

It has dramatically changed the lives of the 400,000 indigenous people who live in the region and who depend on fishing and hunting for their livelihood.

Ice that forms later in the year and melts earlier each year shortens the Inuits' hunting season.

Some hunters have drowned, either caught off guard by thin ice or carried away by torrential currents. Others have had to slaughter their sleddogs because they can't hunt enough food to feed them.

"We are people who not only survive, we thrive on the ice and snow," said Inuit activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier.

Global warming is accelerated in the Arctic because of the concept known as reflexivity.

Ice reflects more than 80 percent of the sun's radiation back into the atmosphere. When the sea ice melts, the dark water does not reflect the heat but instead absorbs it, thereby accentuating the effect of global warming.

In Lapland, the alternating freezes and thaws make it harder for reindeer herders to shuttle their herds to winter pastures.