Melting Artic Sea open up sea lines and treasures

The melting of the Arctic is both a blessing and a curse

Source: The Economist
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According to The Economist, the Arctic's glaciers, including those of Greenland's vast ice cap, are retreating (see map above). The land is thawing: the area covered by snow in June is roughly a fifth less than in the 1960s. The permafrost is shrinking. Alien plants, birds, fish and animals are creeping north and some Arctic species will probably die out. As our special report shows in detail, the Arctic is warming roughly twice as fast as the rest of the planet. Arctic governments are starting to see a bonanza in the melt. The Arctic is stocked with minerals that were hitherto largely inaccessible, including an estimated 30% of undiscovered reserves of natural gas and 13% of undiscovered oil reserves (see map below). Encouraged by Arctic governments and dwindling reserves elsewhere, oil companies are flocking north like migrating geese to explore the continental shelves of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Norway and Russia. Canada and Russia also hope to develop their Arctic shipping-lanes, which the melt is making accessible.

Source: The Economist

Click on the image for larger picture.

VIDEO: Watch the receding Arctic ice-shelf and the shipping routes it could unlock.

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