Here’s a story that made me wonder about an interesting, if unintended, consequence of global warming…
The arctic is one of the earth’s last energy frontiers. Some estimates put 10 billion tons of oil and gas in about 460,000 square miles of the Arctic shelf. As the Arctic’s ice melts and recedes, presumably due to global warming, it’s becoming more likely those waters can be navigated and that oil and gas extracted.
Russia wants to send a miniature sub to the seabed under the North Pole and leave a titanium capsule containing the Russian flag – a symbolic claim of the Arctic Ocean floor for Russia. Russia has claimed this polar region since at least the days of Bolshevika and stated that claim in 2002 in an application to the U.N. committee that administers the Law of the Sea. The U.N. rejected that application citing lack of evidence. This expedition is scientifically important as well as politically important. Russia’s claim to the Arctic floor riches may depend on whether the expedition, subject to dispute and verification of course, determines that the Arctic’s ocean floor in that area is a continuation of the Lomonosov Ridge, a 1,240 mile underwater mountain range connecting Russia and Greenland.
I’m doing some of the simpler things, striking a balance with nature if you will. I drive a hybrid car; my family has a recycle garbage can along with a regular and a yard waste garbage can; I use compact fluorescent light bulbs wherever they will work in my home. Many weeks there are 3 different colored garbage cans outside our house.
Our recycle garbage is always full and sometimes we even have to sneak a few pieces into the neighbor’s recycle can. In fact, I bet we recycle more than twice what goes in the black, non-recyclable can. Oftentimes, our black can has only one lonely bag from the kitchen garbage representing our 7-person family’s entire non-recyclable garbage for a whole week.
Though it may sound like it, I’m actually not a fanatic about global warming and environmental issues. I believe global warming is real. I believe people play a role in that and I believe we should do what we can about it. On the other hand, I don’t believe global warming is a big crisis, I don’t believe people are as responsible as the alarmists would have us believe, and I really don’t believe we can completely go back to the lifestyle that would be required to really make a difference.
I tend to believe things usually work out pretty much the way they should – whether by nature’s hand or God’s. Our earth has an amazing way of renewing, cleansing and taking care of itself and us. And people have an incredible way of inventing what’s needed when it’s needed to solve the problems of the day. I think if we all balance our actions without worrying too much about using the earth’s resources, we’ll have enough of what we need.
The battle over the Arctic’s resources could start a new cold war, but that’s a problem with people, not with nature.
Could this be the silver lining in the global warming phenomenon? Off the top of my head, I think it just might be.
