Wikileaks cables show race to carve up Arctic

[Judi Lynn]

Source: BBC News

Page last updated at 13:00 GMT, Thursday, 12 May 2011 14:00 UK
Wikileaks cables show race to carve up Arctic
By Meirion Jones and Susan Watts
BBC Newsnight

Secret US embassy cables released by Wikileaks show nations are racing to "carve up" Arctic resources - oil, gas and even rubies - as the ice retreats.

They suggest that Arctic states, including the US and Russia, are all pushing to stake a claim.

The opportunity to exploit resources has come because of a dramatic fall in the amount of ice in the Arctic.

The US Geological Survey estimates oil reserves off Greenland are as big as those in the North Sea.




Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/9483790.stm

[Arctic Dave]

1. The military and others with "government" license plates have been up here all year.

Even Canadian military personnell have been up here. Anybody who lives or works up here knows this.

I don't see where Obama has any plans to stop offshore drilling up here, no matter what the cost is.

[Demeter]

2. This really isn't news

The reports were out there for years now.

The news is proving the govt. is actively doing it.

[Uncle Joe]

3. Kicked and recommended.

Tom Burke who advises mining company Rio Tinto and the UK Foreign Office on climate change and business told Newsnight that political tensions are rising because "the ice is declining much faster" than expected, so "everybody who thinks they've got a chance to get at those resources wants to get in there and stake their claim".

(snip)

He told Newsnight the graph "has gone off a cliff" because the ice sheet has thinned as well as shrunk.

(snip)

"Instead of seeing the melting of the Arctic ice cap as a spur to action on climate change, oil companies like Cairn are rushing in to extract the very fossil fuels that caused the melting in the first place," campaigner Ben Ayliffe, who is on the Greenpeace ship Esperanza, told Newsnight.

Thanks for the thread, Judi Lynn.

[No Elephants]

4. Cold war squared.

[johnroshan]

5. All this while the artic is freaking MELTING!!!

Who gives a flying fuck eh? Lets get those rubies and our all time favorite - oil!!

[Zorra]

6. Grandfather was talking to his young granddaughter,

and told the girl that their are 2 wolves that live within all of us.

The first is the wolf of peace, love and kindness.

The other wolf is fear, greed and hatred.

"Which wolf will win, grandfather?" asked the young girl.

Grandfather replied,

"Whichever one we feed, little one."

[defendandprotect]

7. hmmmmmm.........