The dash for the Arctic - New resource wars and environmental disaster

With global warming speeding up the race for the Arctic and its oil and gas deposits is on. Already Norway and Russia have signed a treaty about carving up the Barents Sea and the depositis there. Now Canda and Russia are arguing about the Lomonosov Ridge and control of a large part of the Arctic Ocean. Not only would this be a disaster for the global climate but also the impact on the fragile ecosystem of the Arctic would be immense. Already Greenpeace protesters have been off the coast of Greenland protesting about the impact of oil drilling there, where a large new oilfield has just been discovered.

We have recently seen the impact of a deepwater oil drill going wrong in the Gulf of Mexico but the impact of such an accident in the Artcic would be unimaginable. It would be far more difficult to deal with because of the extremes of temperature etc and it would hugely damage the Arctic's wildlife, particularly the krill on which so much of the ecosystem there is dependant. There is also the danger of future wars, as is referred to in this Russia TV report, along the lines of the resource wars we have seen in the Middle East and Central Asia.