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As new lands become exposed to melting ice caused by climate change, Arctic nations and corporations stand to make trillions of dollars from newly exposed lands and seas.
A new article published in the magazine. Science has warned that melting areas of the Arctic have become “front lines for resource extraction”, describing it as a “modern gold rush”.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimates that up to 90 billion barrels of oil remain undiscovered in the Arctic, of which up to 84 percent are in offshore areas.
With the price of Brent crude oil at $80,861 at the time of writing, the value of oil could reach $7 trillion as a rough estimate.
Melting glaciers in Greenland’s Arctic highlight how climate change is altering the Arctic
Oil giant Exxon Mobil has described the area as “the most promising and least explored regions for oil.”
There are also 1,669 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 44 billion barrels of liquefied natural gas, the USGS estimates.
Oil giant Exxon Mobil has described the area as “the most promising and least explored regions for oil.”
Environmental group Greenpeace has said it is a “bitter irony” that melting Arctic ice is seen as a business opportunity rather than the cost of climate change.
Norway, Canada, Denmark, the United States and Russia have all claimed “extended continental shelves” under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
About 40 percent of the Arctic is made up of land, and another third is made up of extended continental shelves located under less than 500 meters of water.
The USGS said: “The vast continental shelves of the Arctic may constitute the largest geographically unexplored area for oil remaining on Earth.”
The Arctic countries (United States, Canada, Greenland, Norway, Iceland and Canada) have the rights to drill in their territory, and companies like Shell and BP pay to drill in those areas.
Russia’s Gazprom has already begun drilling in Arctic areas.
Environmental activists have taken Norway’s government to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) for allowing oil exploration in the Arctic.
The USGS estimates that 70 percent of undiscovered oil resources are located in Arctic Alaska, the Amerasia Basin, the East Greenland Rift Basins, the East Barents Basins, and West Greenland and East from Canada.
Summer Arctic sea ice is shrinking by 12.2% every decade (Getty)
According to NASA statistics, summer Arctic sea ice is shrinking by 12.2 percent each decade due to warmer temperatures caused by human-caused climate change.
At the end of 2020, the sea ice cover shrank to 3.74 square kilometers, as Siberia burned in a heat wave.
Temperatures in the Arctic were 8°C warmer than average last year, and researchers have predicted there will be no summer sea ice by 2050.
The US government estimates that the world uses 30 billion barrels of oil a year.
Researchers have warned that melting ice could not only cause sea level rises, but new drilling could devastate species such as salmon, and companies would drill in areas where they would reproduce.
Lead author Jonathan Moore of Simon Fraser University says in the article: “Current policies are lagging behind the rapid pace of change,” calling for new laws on extracting oil and minerals from areas exposed to melting ice. ice.
He writes: “As climate change warms the Earth, the melting cryosphere creates nascent ecosystems that have future value as habitat but are also the front lines for resource extraction.”
‘As climate warming continues, receding glaciers are exposing new lands that have potential future value as crucial habitats for culturally important species, such as Pacific salmon.
“However, receding glaciers are also contributing to the current gold rush, as mining companies around the world search these areas for newly exposed mineral deposits.”