Hot Topics in the Melting Arctic
“The melting Arctic is the proverbial canary in the coal mine of planetary health and a harbinger of how the warming planet will profoundly affect U.S. national security.“ Thanks to global warming, the Arctic icecap is rapidly melting and melting fast. Last summer, the area covered by sea ice shrank by more than one million square miles, reducing the Arctic icecap to only half the size it was 50 years ago. This process—unstoppable by now—will open up access to massive natural resources and create shipping shortcuts that could save billions of dollars a year. But without clear rules governing this economically and strategically vital region, there could be a mad dash for its resources with the Arctic descending into armed conflict.
SCOTT G. BORGERSON is an International Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and the former director of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy’s Institute for Leadership.
Cosponsored by the Gloucester Lyceum
Links:
“Arctic Meltdown: The Economic and Security Implications of Global Warming” in the March/April 2008 issue of Foreign Affairs
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20080301faessay87206-p40/scott-g-borgerson...
“An Ice Cold War” in the August 8, 2007, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/08/opinion/08borgerson.html?_r=1&oref=slo...