EDIT on Sep 12, 2007: Arctic sea ice cover at record low
It has been amusing to see several lobbies trying to make us believe that Global Warming is a hoax, and it is more amusing to see many of these lobbies are partially or fully funded by Oil Giants. Their effort against the concept of Global Warming and the impact of human being on Global Warming did show some results and there is still a good amount of confusion regarding this concept. As a result of this confusion, many people do not take this concept seriously and some who started conservation as a part of their life are not so serious about it or are dubious about it. Although there is a good amount of people who are trying their best to reduce their footprints on Earth, this problem needs attention from each one of us.
There has been news for quite sometime regarding the conflict we are starting to see in Arctic Circle of Earth. Arctic is on extreme North of Earth and it used to be covered by ice mostly until recently. As a side-effect of Global Warming though, the ice in the Arctic area is melting. Due to the melting and reduction in ice cover of this area more and more sunlight is being absorbed instead of reflecting back to atmosphere, which is further increasing the rate of melting of ice. The temperature in this area is increasing at double the rate of rest of the Earth.
So what?
Arctic is extremely rich in oil and gas. And now that the ice is melting fast it is feasible to extract these resources from Arctic area. But who owns Arctic? Russia always claimed it to be its part, Canada is there too, USA always had an interest in Arctic and then we have Denmark. The thirst for Oil is deadly, and we have already seen it in the form of Iraq war. And to get an idea of the amount of the resources in Arctic for which the world is thirsty, "It contains about 40% of the world's requirement of Energy."
Also, now that companies are trying to fetch the resources from Arctic, they are going to ruin that place as well. God Forbid, if we see a war for that area then I don't think we will have the Earth or Environment to save.
Let’s hope for some sane policies for the whole humanity in coming days. Do your best to save the environment and pray that these companies do not spoil some more of Earth's pristine areas in Arctic.
Raag
Relevant Links:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0731/p01s01-woeu.htmlhttp://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10217691/site/newsweek/http://www.nrdc.org/globalwarming/qthinice.asp
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