Countries Plan Land Rush in Warming Arctic 657
Noel Bourke sent in a pointer to this story about northern nations maneuvering to claim land in the Arctic. Fossil fuels, shipping lanes, and fishing are among the economic interests at stake, in an opportunity opened up by the melting Arctic ice.
A unique and amazing ecoregion (Score:5, Interesting)
Allocation... (Score:5, Interesting)
Holland looks lucky (or unlucky if you count the relocation costs.)
...And here in the UK, the English, in the Southern (mostly) flatlands, have to move to the north pole, making Scotland a sunny resort.
Is this a short sighted goal? (Score:2, Interesting)
It is nice to think that there are still people out there who are so eager to explore this new area. As I watch people going to the front window in our office to trigger the remote starters on their cars (it's 20F here today) I can hardly imagine being able to find enough people to fill a helicopter that would be willing to brave that kind of extreme weather!
Melting Ice caps (Score:3, Interesting)
Thin Ice (Score:5, Interesting)
Already divied up? (Score:5, Interesting)
landrush? really? They're going to be disappointe (Score:3, Interesting)
(and yes, I read the article, but it was a bit boring really. Why can't Russia control it as it has all those nuclear subs hanging around the place, or Canada that sort-of owns all the cold bits anyway. Denmark.... good luck guys
in related news (Score:4, Interesting)
Hubris, arrogance, and lack of foresight are among the karmic interests at stake, in an opportunity opened up by the melting Arctic ice.
Although... maybe Erik the Red can finally make good on the biggest real estate swindle of the last 2 millenia: giving "Greenland" [wikipedia.org] it's real estate-friendly but truth-defying name.
Re:This is just disgusting (Score:3, Interesting)
Though I'll grant you that the rate of change we are seeing and will see may be a cause for alarm and there is a pretty good chance it is man made. In particular if the change is to rapid many species will be wiped out because they wont be able to adapt quickly enough.
Most of the Bush administration crowd, who also happen to be the fossil fuel burning crowd, are more than willing to kid themselves that this is just the natural "greening" of a planet coming out of the ice age. They do have a point that there is no law that says we have to have huge ice packs on the poles, and there certainly have been era in earth's history when there weren't.
Re:This is just disgusting (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, capitalism doesn't fare better just because it's capitalism -- but, all democratic countries at the moment are capitalist (no, people's democracy is as far from democracy as it can be), and that gives them a chance of having the voices of people heard.
In communism, the Party rules unchecked, and people have nothing to say. And, caring about the environment is not among the goals of any communist party I know of.
When life gives you lemons.... (Score:5, Interesting)
It's quite simple. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
Perhaps I will explain using examples on a smaller scale.
Do you criticize the autobody man that makes a buck off someone haveing a car accident? Yes, he profits off someone's misery, but he fills a need.
Do you criticize a factory that starts making jerry cans and body bags because a nearby country got washed out by a tsunami? Yes, the factory makes money out of the misery of others. They also fill a need.
Melting ice caps and the openning of the northwest passage is an issue of national security in Canada - our waterways and shores need to be protected and that is incredibly difficult to do if the north is unpopulated.
Nobody will pretend that the tsunami is a good thing and nobody will pretend that global warming is good, but every challenge presents a need and every need presents an opporunity and that is the essence of capitalism.
- Thomas;
The North Pole is nothing but Ice (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm sure if someone other that the U.S., good ol' G.W. will "melt their hopes" with lasers from his newfangled missile defense system that he's planning.
Either that or the current tendancy of the U.S. government to ignore things like greenhouse gasses and global warning will do the job without having to fire a single laser.
Anyone find it ironic that the New Zealand Herald is reporting on this? That's about as far as you can get from a country with arctic interests.
Re:Too bad Canada doesn't have a military. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:When life gives you lemons.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Its not so much that capitalism is "bad" because nothing is sacred (that is, everything is a commodity), but that it is unsustainable because long-term conseqences (often referred to as externalities) are not factored into the decision making process.
Of what we've seen in the past few years, it seems that Marx was right. Capitalism will collapse under its own weight.
Re:A unique and amazing ecoregion - WRONG. (Score:2, Interesting)
Ratios. . . (Score:3, Interesting)
--Actually, I'd be curious to know the ratio of Internet Explorer users to people who spent the last ten years in environmental denial. --As well as to people who think torture in Iraq is no worse than college 'hazing'. And to those who bought into the whole WMD thing. Indeed, I wonder how many common threads there are among people who still have their heads plugged into the Matrix.
-FL
Re:Why not? (Score:3, Interesting)
As a canadian I can tell you that even if the temp. raises more than a few degrees, the earth will still be very inhabitable, and in places, even pleasant.
Sovereignty must be backed up with force (Score:3, Interesting)
Any attempts to use our waters and resources is a violation of Canadian sovereignty.
International law dictates that, unless Canada makes an effort to assert its sovereignty by, for instance, maintaining settlements, conducting patrols and challenging trespassers, then Canada would lose its right to the territory. And there are currently vast swaths of uninhabited land up there that we don't regularly patrol.
I suspect many people don't realize this. And as a fellow Canadian, I'm quite worried. Just because we make maps that declare it to be a part of Canada, doesn't mean other countries have to agree. And we mustn't get complacent just because we think that friendly countries wouldn't try and steal our territory if they felt they could get away with it. If we want to keep it, we have to work for it.
Re:I heard the Polish (Score:2, Interesting)
Even people who thought they were funny 20 years ago have a hard time now trying to figure out why they were funny.
Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side. Yeah, believe it or not, people apparently thought it was outrageously funny a hundred years ago. Why? Who knows. The whole set of cultural references that made it funny are gone, and nobody even knows what they were.
Greenland as a tectonic counterweight (Score:2, Interesting)
To make matters worse, greenland is on the far end of the
North American plate. [usgs.gov]
If the downforce of all that ice disappears into the oceans, the tectonic plate might start to balance itself, causing giant earthquakes while lowering the US and Canada.
The same thing happened [phschool.com] to Scandinavia after the last ice age.
It's difficult to predict exactly what will happen and how strongly, but it's a dangerous possibility you don't hear much about.
Danes perspective (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Danes perspective (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm sure the Icelanders will be on my case in a second
Re:How Big Is The Bathtub? (Score:2, Interesting)