Politicians exploit global warming for oil

The United States and other industrialized countries are concerned about oil’s diminishing reserves and all-time high prices; politicians are scrounging to find accessible oil to satiate our machines. From looking into Alaska’s protected lands and conceivably inciting warfare for the sake of oil, the United States has joined other world powers in the mission to stake a claim on the Arctic’s resources.
The Arctic has always stored oil beneath its icy crust; an often cited report from a 2000 U.S. Geological Survey claims the area houses more than 25 percent of the planet’s undiscovered oil reserves. (Although another, more recent survey believes the Arctic houses only 10 percent of the world’s reserves and claims much of it would be hard to access and develop.) These resources have remained largely inaccessible throughout human history; but now, when global warming is at a full boil and, according to the Los Angeles Times, the region’s ice levels are at their lowest ever, resources have suddenly come within reach.

According to Time, Russia has already hammered its flag in the seabed of the North Pole; Canada has announced its plans for an Arctic military training facility and a revamped deepwater port; Denmark has already embarked on a scientific exploration to map the region; Norway has a gas field; and the United States is urging ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which many conservatives once rejected but now support, as it would potentially permit American stake holdings in the troubled ocean.

Surveying the political proceedings of the Arctic, Time reveals a frightening truth: “There is something very paradoxical about seeking in the Arctic the very carbon fuels that are melting the northern ice.”

Global leaders are now seeking the very products known to have destroyed the Earth to the point of no return. Studies cited by the USGS predict the melting of the Arctic ice will only continue.

By twisting global warming into political opportunity, international officials are leaving Earth to rot.

Daily Trojan