The Arctic sea ice, bears a hand, the other oil giants: cohabitation impossible. Benefit
for some, peril for others. Mouthing a topic that will become one of the greatest
environmental challenges of the coming years. ---- The Arctic: two million square
kilometers of land preserved irremovable, a pack of 3.5 million km2 surrounding the North
Pole to the edge of the Arctic Circle, possession of six countries (Canada, United States,
Denmark, Russia Norway, Iceland), with a population of 4 million indigenous Inuit
lifestyles directly dependent on their environment. So much for the purely geographical
context. But the Arctic, whose name comes from the Greek root meaning Arktos "bear" is
also one of the last wildernesses of such importance, a constantly evolving ecosystem,
home to exceptional biodiversity and the air conditioner's largest planet.
If these features do not save specific consequences of climatic whose impacts are felt in
this region more than anywhere else. In recent decades, the decline in sea ice, melting
like snow in the sun, has exceeded all projections scientists.
Climate changes
Experts often the alarm easy, and catastrophic forecasts. But now the question is no
longer whether the ice will disappear completely one day during the summer, but when it
will happen. Professor of Glaciology at the University of Cambridge, Peter Wadams believes
that within five years, "most of the surface summer ice could disappear, and only a cooler
pocket of resistance remain north of Ellesmere Island. In 20 years, this pocket disappear
in turn, and the Arctic Ocean will be completely ice-free in summer. " The findings are
revealing: 45% of the ice disappeared the last thirty years [ 1 ], the rate of melting of
some glaciers like the Kangerdlugssuaq can triple from one year to another, and the record
minimum ice level has already been defeated in 2012. This acceleration is astonishing and
complex phenomenon to explain changes in ocean currents could play a key role. "The influx
of warm currents in the fjords of Greenland is one of the factors behind these changes,"
says Dr. Fiamma Straneo of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. Accelerated melting is
not without consequences on the environment. A major part of land-based glaciers, their
disappearance leads to both an increase in sea levels, and decreased ability of the Arctic
to act as a moderating system air temperatures over the globe. Or how to accelerate the
vicious circle for climate change. In addition, a vast wildlife is in danger of extinction
and habitat friendly bear arctic foxes, caribou, arctic hare, snowy owls, etc.., Cause
premature death of all these species.
Accelerated melting of ice
It is clear that nothing will reverse the trend in recent years. And that is the tragedy:
no one seems to take into account the fragility of the environment and the exponential
acceleration of the melting of the ice cap. In 1991, the UN had granted the status of
Antarctic nature reserve World prohibiting industrial activity on their lands (Treaty of
Madrid), the great nations seem to have adopted a different posture vis-?-vis Arctic.
Today they compete to exploit groundwater oil wealth buried this suddenly become
accessible through the back of the pack. More than 40 companies have begun geological
research and are ready to fight to the last drop of black gold territory. While the oil
resources of the Arctic are estimated at three years of world consumption, the oil giants
are now ready to invest in projects more expensive, in the most remote areas of our
planet, to draw in ever deeper pockets, thus increasing the risk of accidents.
Beginnings of a catastrophe
Yet the recent past should be scalded consciences. On 20 April 2010, the Deepwater
Horizon, leased by British Petroleum (BP) in the Gulf of Mexico explodes. The flight takes
five months to be sealed, 780 million liters of oil dispersed in the Atlantic Ocean
fouling thousands of kilometers of coastline and affecting 400 animal species. March 25,
2012, Total announced a leak in its gas platform Elgin. Two hundred thousand cubic meters
of gas escaping every day for two months, this is the biggest environmental disaster ever
occurred in the North Sea. In both cases, the drilling of the standards were used for many
years by the oil, far from the geological and geographical complexities of drilling in the
Arctic. And if the ecological consequences of these accidents are disastrous, and it will
take several decades to get rid of the traces, the impact of an oil spill in the Arctic
Circle would be more dramatic than elsewhere: the cold waters favoring adhesive abilities
and harmful hydrocarbons, the pollution incrusterait permanently in the ice, without any
human intervention is able to reduce the pollution. This is when an entire ecosystem and
food chain which would be irreversibly degraded. Shell and Gazprom, ahead of their
competitors have begun their first drilling campaign offshore Chukchi and Beaufort early
September. Three weeks later, the company announced that it was quitting the Shell work.
The dome to retain leaks (installation became mandatory since the Deepwater disaster) was
already damaged. In the aftermath, Gazprom followed the movement and retreated for unknown
reasons. No drilling in the Arctic in 2012, go to the fall of 2013. But how should we
consider the first drop? With $ 4.5 billion already invested by Shell in this project, we
can not believe that the Dutch giant is cooled by the passive resistance of the Arctic.
Where there is oil, there is no reason, and this first failure appears to be only the
beginning of a disaster.
Anthony Concil (environmental activist)
[ 1 ] 3.41 million km2 in September 22 or 45% less than the same date in 1979, when the
first recordings.
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