White House sees black gold in melting sea ice

[RamboLiberal]

Source: USA Today

The Bush administration is worried about missing out on a bonanza of oil and other resources in the Arctic unless Congress approves a treaty that helps determine who has rights to the area's wealth.

Arctic sea ice has decreased nearly 20% in the last two decades as the Earth's climate warms, making access to the area easier. The eight countries bordering the region, including the USA, are now staking competing claims.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the Arctic seabed and subsoil hold as much as 25% of the world's undiscovered oil and gas. Other resources such as nickel and diamonds also are present.

The melting ice also has led to increased traffic from ships seeking a shorter route between Europe, Asia and the Western Hemisphere.



Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-07-30-arctic_N.htm

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Wow - another reason they are ignoring and obfuscating global warming - they will get richer as it continues!

[grasswire]

1. exactly

chaos = profit for them. Every blinking time.

[Captain Angry]

2. On the bright side

We won't need bombers to get this oil.

That is of course unless Russia is able to prove their ownership of the arctic. Last map I saw showed awfully little US territory up there. The Canadians, the Russians and I think it was Finland that had access.

What a mess.

[rodeodance]

6. our bombers are sitting in Iraq on the (non)premenant air bases.---well,

many of them are

[formercia]

16. Greenland is part of Denmark

I think they will have something to say about that too.

[OneBlueSky]

3. site of a future war, no doubt . . . if there's resources, they're OUR resources . . .

because, well, we're just so darn GOOD! . . . and if anyone else tries to take them -- well, God help 'em . . .

[ClintonTyree]

4. So global warming is actually a GOOD thing!

:sarcasm: Now the U.S. will be able to sustain it's oil addiction for another decade, perhaps. See, the Bush administration knew what it was doing all along! Global warming made this all possible. :banghead:

The U.S. WILL claim these resources as their own and will invade any country that says differently. It's the American way.

Great. Just great.

[alfredo]

24. bush alluded to that several years ago back when they were

saying global warming could be a good thing.

[tom_paine]

5. Hitler and Stalin...I mean Bush and Putin, will be going nose to nose over this

As is fitting, for as Hitler and Stalin were, Bush and Putin are also very close to each other on the authoritarian scale of tyranny.

This should be interesting, because it will surely play out over the watches of two future leaders, though be not surprised if they will both be working for the BushPutinists.

[Vidar]

7. Wars with Canada & Russia on the list of comming attractions.

[tanyev]

8. One person's tragedy is another person's opportunity for personal enrichment.

It's the Republican way.

[bvar22]

23. More like:

The tragedy and pain of millions is opportunity for the enrichment of the privileged few.

[Administrator1]

9. Looking Back

Every once in a while, I have to remind myself that things were not always as they are now. Looking back in history allows us to see the changes in a dramatic way whether they be good or bad.

Before the Republican Party was highjacked, it was very different than it is now. Consider the farewell address of the last true Republican president, WW II General Dwight D. Eisenhower. His words were prescient-- if only they had been heeded.

http://www.massachusettsobserver.com/eisenhower.htm

[hedgehog]

25. I think you give Eisenhower too much credit.

As the Liberator of Europe, why did he sit on the sidelines while Mccarthy ran wild? What did he do in his eight years in office to restrain the military -industrial complex?

[YankeyMCC]

10. This points to the real problem

There was a piece (on edit: correction it was from the BBC http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=106296&mesg_id=106296 ) that talked about this, but the real fundamental problem is our current wasteful, unsustainable practices rather than just the greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere. Yes we need to fight the increasing amounts of greenhouse gases (CO2 in particular) but that is only a major symptom of the real problem of unsustainable practices on which our civilization is built.

[Doctor_J]

18. Precisely

Regardless of how many new oil pits are discovered, fossil fuels are finite. Harvesting a new reserve will only put off the disaster by a few geological minutes, while continuing the awful side effects.

Sooner or later we will turn to alternative fuel or perish.

[DeepModem Mom]

11. Well, well. And you got it right, RL. nt

[GoddessOfGuinness]

12. Which is precisely why he WANTS global warming.

The greedy dolts will gnash their teeth over this oil, which will last only until it is used.

:grr:

[shain from kane]

13. Who put our oil under your ice?

[ima_sinnic]

14. do these greedy pigs ever think of ANYthing besides money?

The entire planet is being trashed, millions of people are suffering and being murdered just so a few scumsuckers can be obscenely wealthy for the miniscule blink of eye in which they inhabit the planet. Greed and lack of foresight are fatal flaws that will be the undoing of the human race.

[CoffeeCat]

15. Oh great, another war...

Oh gee, when does Colin Powell show up and point out mobile weapons labs lumbering
on the Arctic Ice?

I can't wait until Donald Rumsfeld reappears--to tell us that the Arctic penguins
and seals have weapons of mass destruction that they won't turn over.

The UN will give the Arctic region several chances to disarm, but the penguins
will refuse, claiming that they have no weapons in the "north, east south or west",
only herring and krill.

Cheney will accuse the creatures of the Arctic of attempting to buy yellow cake
from Greenland.

Then, "Shock and Awe" begins, when a giant blow dryer descends, melting everything
in sight.

War is hell.

[karlrschneider]

19. Maybe seals or polar bears...? Penguins only live in the southern hemisphere.

:D

[Delphinus]

17. To hell with the fact the world is melting!

Let's go get that oil! :puke: :mad:

[tomg]

20. I don't know which is more insane:

Bush (and the other seven border nations) who think this is the greatest thing since sliced bread, or Inhofe's "reason" for opposing the treaty: "Right now we have total control. . . . Let's hold on to it."

We have gone from choosing the lesser of two evils to having the same evil but one "reason" possibly less nuts than the other "reason."

[woodsprite]

21. That thought occurred to me the other day when I read

about Puti-put wanting to stake out a claim using a capsule with the Russian flag to lay claim to the sea bed at the north pole. Now, does Puti-put's mission lend an air of urgency to *co's efforts to mine/drill Alaska? Hmmm, that could be what they were planning and talking about buddy-buddy the last time they met.

[dipsydoodle]

22. Exactly what has this got to do with the USA

Back in 1868 all that bought was Alaska itself. It follows that the USA has no claims to make.

After the House of Representatives finally appropriated the money in the summer of 1868, the U.S. Treasury transferred $7.2 million in gold to Russia. The unusual price included the cost of acquiring some remaining assets of the Russian-American Company in Alaska, as well as funds set aside to bribe select American Congressmen to vote for the treaty

http://international.loc.gov/intldl/mtfhtml/mfak/mfaksale.html

[kitty1]

26. So who exactly is putting this treaty together, I didn't think Bush...

and his cronies did treaties.
A UN tribunal with an international concensus of geologists/scientists and others should determine what constitutes a country's territory over there.
Of course if Bush feels like he's getting screwed out of his share of the gold rush, he'll cry foul and do his go own go it alone approach.
This could cause icy relations for sure (excuse the pun)