A Melting Arctic Will Bring Climate Disaster Without Urgent Action
President Joe Biden met with both U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and then King Charles this week to discuss climate change, and action on the Arctic should have been at the top of the agenda since the melting of Arctic sea ice is rapidly destabilizing the climate more powerfully than any other immediate cause.
As the Arctic’s reflective sea ice continues to melt, more and more heat is absorbed by the darker ocean underneath, disrupting the world’s weather and inflicting punishing and hugely expensive climate impacts in the U.S., U.K. and around the globe.
The loss of sea ice also is rearranging geopolitical power in very dangerous ways for the West, as Russia and China cooperate on newly opened Arctic sea lanes and plot to jointly exploit oil, gas and other minerals made more accessible as the ice disappears.
But there is still a choice: temporary riches from oil and gas for a few, or planetary safety for all. This should be an easy call. But it doesn’t seem to be.
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