Exploring the openings created by Arctic melting

[TomCADem]

Source: Financial Times

China has started paying attention to the strategic implications of the melting of Arctic ice and could seek a more active role in regulating use of the region, a report said yesterday.

The report comes as Russia prepares to sail a large oil tanker the entire length of its Arctic sea coast for the first time, opening a strategic energy trading bridge between European Russia and east Asia.

The findings of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's paper indicate that the Arctic could emerge as another area in which China starts defining global strategic interests, following its increasing investments in Africa and moves to build a presence in the Indian Ocean.

SIPRI said the prospect of the Arctic being navigable during the summer had driven Beijing to allocate more funds for polar research, and scholars were increasingly pushing the government to develop an Arctic strategy.

Read more: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fd3e7212-2598-11df-9bd3-00144feab49a.html

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Okay, if climate change is so controversial, then why are we seriously having a discussion about the issues created by navigating an ice free Artic. Why is Hillary Clinton discussing the diplomatic challenges resulting from an ice free Artic? While the cable news media sensationalizes a few random e-mails, please ignore the super powers looking at ways to exploit an ice free Artic.

This is the freakin Financial Times, not some Green Peace pamphlet that is discussing the anticipated melt of the polar ice cap.

[Richard D]

1. Cause . . .

. . . it's too late to stop it. Now it's a matter of who profits the most from it.

[time_has_come]

2. the funeral industry n/t

[northofdenali]

3. They aren't the first.

Canada and the US are already at odds over a possible new "passage" in the Arctic.

Meanwhile, my polar bears are dying. :(

[wroberts189]

4. The poor polar bears ..like I imagine various species of penguins....

Will all die off. It is heartbreaking I know.

And then to see countries exploit the new reality ..while still denying it in a most dishonest way ..is an outrage.

[ro1942]

5. They are never going to stop

till the hole world is used up

[Blue Meany]

6. The same reason that while Bush was busy denying global

warming early in his administration, the Navy, under his leadership, was busying making plans for an expanded fleet that could operate in the Arctic.

[Winterblues]

7. Not sure anyone is denying that the earth is warming

Just why that is seems to be a point of contention..Science as a whole is trying to attribute it to Greenhouse gasses probably created by man burning fossil fuels and spewing massive amounts of Carbon into the atmosphere.

[fascisthunter]

8. it's not "trying", science has revealed to us that man is responsible

and there is no more debate.

[TomCADem]

11. Um, Did You Notice The Republicans Ridiculing Climate Change Due To Blizzards?

I think most (not all) folks on this board recognize that weather does not equal climate change. Yet, you have Republicans celebrating the blizzard as proof of the non-existence of climate change, and the media happily spreading this mis-information.

[hatrack]

9. I'd suggest mouth-watering opportunities in expanded crop insurance policies . . .

All that extra heat being absorbed by what was once ice and will soon be open water . . .

I fearlessly predict a very warm & sunny outlook for the US Corn Belt!

[daggahead]

10. Didn't Norway & Russia already start ...

... staking claims to the oil under the thinning ice cap? Won't be long before we'll see Arctic cruises ... oh, boy.