Let the games begin: The rush for resources in Greenland
by Philip Bump
Everyone got pretty freaked out last month when we learned that 97 percent of Greenland’s ice sheet surface melted over the course of a week in July.
Well, almost everyone. Some people saw dollar signs. Literally, like in the cartoons.
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: There’s no stronger indictment of modern civilization than that one of the first topics of conversation after learning that climate change is melting ice is how quickly we can extract the climate-change-inducing resources that were trapped under all of that ice. If time travel existed, I suspect we’d see time travelers armed with future-laser-weapons ringing Greenland, politely suggesting that ravenous prospectors turn their ships around.
But time travel doesn’t exist, so various corporate entities are sitting at a big wooden dining table around a big map of Greenland, napkins tucked into their starched collars, knives in each hand…
(read more: The Grist) (image: christine zenino)
