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Pool / Reuters
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Norway's Minister of Foreign Affairs Jonas Gahr Stoere (right) talk onboard the Arctic research vessel Helmer Hanssen while touring a fjord off Tromso Saturday.
TROMSO, Norway -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton boarded a research ship on Saturday to tour the Arctic, where big powers are vying for vast deposits of oil, gas and minerals that are becoming available as the polar ice recedes.
The top U.S. diplomat took the unusual step of visiting Tromso, a Norwegian town in the Arctic Circle, to dramatize U.S. interests in a once inaccessible region whose resources are up for grabs as the sea ice melts with climate change.
"From a strategic standpoint, the Arctic has an increasing geopolitical importance as countries vie to protect their rights and extend their influence," Clinton told reporters in Oslo before making the nearly two-hour flight north to Tromso.
"We want to work with Norway and the Arctic Council to help manage these changes and to agree on what would be, in effect, the rules of the road in the Arctic, so new developments are economically sustainable and environmentally responsible," she added.
The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the Arctic holds about 13 percent of the world's undiscovered conventional oil and 30 percent of its undiscovered natural gas.
Clinton to assert U.S. claim in scramble for Arctic
Beyond the energy resources, as the ice melts Arctic sea passages are opening for longer periods each year, cutting thousands of miles off trade routes between Europe and Asia.
On an eight-day trip to Scandinavia, the Caucasus and Turkey, Clinton is the latest high-profile visitors to the Arctic as it enjoys unprecedented political and economic power.
While energy development costs could be twice as high as those of conventional onshore resources, that has not stopped of the oil industry's top players from moving in.
Eco-campaigners condemn rush for oil
Exxon Mobil is working with Russia's Rosneft to develop blocks in the Kara Sea, off Siberia, despite the presence of sea ice for up to 300 days a year. Russia's Gazprom is also working with Total of France and Norway's Statoil on the Shtokman gas field.
But the rush for oil and gas has brought condemnation from environment campaigners and those who say the rights of local people risk being trampled.
Environmental activists say the Arctic challenges require much more aggressive action on everything from fishing quotas to international standards for oil and gas development in a pristine, delicate region.
Only about 4 million people live in Arctic areas, leaving local interest groups weak and creating a risk of uncontrolled development, a challenge for the Arctic Council, the advisory forum of eight nations formed in 1996 to promote cooperation.
The council includes the United States, Canada, Russia, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Sweden and Denmark, which handles foreign affairs for Greenland, as well as groups representing indigenous people directly affected as ice and snow retreat.
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Leave a Comment:
Let's drive this sucker right into the ground!!! Whatever happened to foresight?
"Clinton highlights importance of oil-rich Arctic"
But all of that oil and natural gas is meaningless as long as Obama continues to prevent any attempts to find those reserves and use them to help lower energy prices in the USA.
I wonder if 'climate change' will make Greenland Green again, like it was about 1000 years ago for the Vikings?
So we can drill as long as it's not in our own country?
Seems like it would be easier if we just drilled for the oil we already have. It would require the same amount of diplomatic haggling, though. We should dispatch our Secretary of State to 1000 Pennsylvania Avenue and see if she can establish constructive communications towards drilling WITHIN our borders . . .
I second the motion! Why are we going to help Norway, but can't use our own resources. Something stinks in the Obama administration.
Who needs another source, we already spent how much money in the middle east to keep our lines open. Lets just take over all the oil fields in the middle east, I'm sure this was the plan to begin with.
Cubsfan2012, three little words--- (BP) Gulf Oil Spill. Drilling everywhere is no problem until something goes wrong and it always does.
So how is this fitting into o'bummer's "green" policies?
Since a European oil company treated the U.S. to a huge environmental disaster, the U.S. should treat Europe to a potential oil disaster? Gotta love their strategies.
That the Arctic ice is melting so much at all probably means we can write off that second new-development requirement.
:(
Iraqi wars invented high oil prices and economic mess.
Remove sanctions on Iranian oil and reduce oil prices.
WMD of Iran as much a hoax as Iraq's. Also Iran can buy nukes from Pakistan or N. Korea when required.
Lastly, from all angles find subsitutes for oil. Even environmental issues are important and they are ignored in the craze for oil!
Jonathan-1982062 "Iraqi wars invented high oil prices"
Are you for real?
By the way - we get virtually none of our oil from Iraq.
Roy, and we get virtually none of our oil from USA either. USA exports domestically produced oil bc we make more money. We don't need to be dependent on anyone for oil, except the market dictates otherwise.
ROY WILSON: Hope you have the patience to read the post. I have been posting them now and then.
The following are Bushes contributions.
IRAQ WARS
Net results of Saudi, Kuwait, UAE, oil companies and their lobbyists directed 1991 and 2003 Iraqi wars are
WINNERS
1. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE and other rich ME sharks became richer by manipulating oil prices too high.
2. Oil companies and their lobbyists also benefitted. Oil prices, which were hardly $30 a barrel before 1991, shot up to $140 a barrel.
3. Since 2003, future traders, rating agencies, Wall Street and oil companies and their lobbyists transferred five trillion dollars from oil importing countries to oil exporting nations.
4. Rich Sunni ME sharks (Saudi Arabia in particular) funded Salaffi and Wahhabi mosques and Islamic radicals and terrorists all over the world. These Sunni Islamic radicals and terrorists are rampaging all over the world. World’s 80 percent of problems are due to them.
LOSERS
1. General US and European nations’ public. There have been high unemployment, cut in welfare measures, housing market collapse and more miseries. Since 2001, US spent three trillion dollars on Iraq and Afghan wars. Did the Saudis and co foot the bill?
2. Poor soldiers killed and injured and their families. In Iraq and Afghan wars 6300 soldiers were killed and 40000 injured.
3. High budget deficits and heavier borrowing. Many nations (PIIGS) and people are on line to bankruptcy!
4. Iraq will plunge into bloody sectarian civil wars leading to the creation of Shiastan, Sunnistan and Kurdistan. Here the losses are of Iraqis.
By putting sanctions on Iranian oil, price manipulations higher and higher and more economic mess will be Obama's contributions.
Roy Wilson, You do realize that oil is a global commodity right? Take Iran's, Iraq's, & Libya's oil off line and their customers have to buy oil from other markets. Yes, the US oil does not come from those countries but someone's does. It's a big game of musical chairs. A lot of oil produced on US soil and waters is heading overseas right now.
Flunking economics is a requisite for liberalism. It is supply/demand that is driving the price of oil, Google "China traffic jamb" to buy a clue.
We get about 30% of our oil domestically last I checked. The vast majority comes from the western hemisphere. Oil is indeed a world wide commodity, that's why drilling here or anywhere else lowers the price.
Many countries are boycotting Iranian oil to put pressure on them to stop making materials to build bombs. Rest assured, Israel will bomb them back to the stone age after Nov if they don't stop.
Obama is doing everything possible to increase the cost of oil, it's his goal for sure. All our production increases are on private land which is beyond his control.
The United States has NOT harvest a vast amount of oil that we have found in the Arctic, not because of sound science but because of environmental policy ("cause). Most folk are surprised when they are educated about how drilling takes place. On the north slope drilling only occurs in the winter months and from "ice platforms" that are created for that purpose. The platforms have a footprint about the size of a soccer field. The only thing that touches the ground (tundra) is an 8" drill bit. When the "ice platforms" start to melt the drilling rig is dismantled and moved.
Most folk have no knowledge of the regional climate that controls the Arctic and its effect on the globe. The folling excerpt will help with further research on the reader's part.
Arctic’s ice cap floats. Its position at any given moment is at the whim of the ocean conveyors, continental boundaries and prevailing winds. The melting of the Arctic ice will be from calories given up by the ocean and not the atmosphere. Since this ice total is less than one per cent of Earth’s ice the effects, if melted, are local only. The ebb and flow of these ice packs are a result of a regional climate, not global.
If ALL the ice from the Arctic and glaciers melted at the end of the summer the effect upon sea level would be negligible, nearly impossible to ascertain since the oceans of the world are subservient to wind fetches and tidal gyrations from a few feet to many tens of feet. However, there is evidence that this fresh water melt, augmented by the Greenland melt, did overlay the cold Arctic salt waters to the point that it shut down the Gulf Stream (GS) for 10 days in 2004. This indicates that this regional climate is very fragile from a thermal observation.
No scientist knows what caused the GS to stop flowing in 2004. According to the Scientists at Woods Hole, the stoppage event was described as “the most abrupt change in the whole (climate) record”.
What would happen if “a significant amount of Greenland’s ice cap melted”?
The latest climate models predict that the GS will slow down as global warming increases. However, easurements by NASA[1] of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation show no significant slowing
over the last 15 years; in fact the data suggest the circulation may have sped up by as much as 20% in the recent past.
The GS is the conveyor that keeps England and northern Europe from having a regional climate similar to the climate in Canada above the 45th latitude. Warm surface water flows from the tropics northward into the North Atlantic as one of the currents that make up the Atlantic overturning circulation system. Within the oceans surrounding Greenland the GS cools and sinks to great depths as it changes direction. What was once warm surface water heading north becomes cold deep water heading generally south.
The GS starts from the Equatorial Current from the African coast, moving east to west under the influence of the trade winds in the tropical North Atlantic. The South American continent deflects the current northward causing it to meander among the Caribbean Islands. The Equatorial Current circles the Gulf of Mexico in a clockwise fashion, exiting through the straits between Florida and Cuba. Then the Stream joins the Antilles Current, officially forming the GS.
The GS is about 90 kilometers wide and flows at two meters per second at about 60 degrees latitude.
The GS flows at about 80 million cubic meters per second, which exceeds the volume of ALL rivers in the world. The volume of the GS is 3500 times larger than the Mississippi River’s discharge into the Gulf of Mexico.
The large volume of warm water moved by the GS toward the colder North East Atlantic reaches near Latitude 40-42 degrees north before it’s deflected southward. The GS loses heat energy by melting the ice floes, as well as calories loss as the cold fresh water, from the glaciers, all of which overlay the GS cooling it to a density[2] of the surrounding salt water. The result is the GS loses its identity and becomes part of the North Atlantic
Ocean.
If melt from the Greenland ice pack increases, there will be an increase of fresh cold water with a density of 1.000 overlaying the ocean of cold saltwater with a density of 1.030. The boundary[3] integrity of any two liquids of different densities is very rigid.
Greenland’s ice cap volume is about 2.85 million cubic kilometers. If all the ice melted, the mean elevation of the world’s oceans would be increased by about 23.6 meters. But, more realistically, for each 100 meters of ice melt equivalent to the Island size, the oceans would rise about 19.5 inches.
Since Greenland on average is warmer than Antarctica, an increase in local temperatures could produce melting here first. If the temperatures on Greenland continue to rise, the snowfall will increase on the ice cap. This will increase the ice cap volume and provide more ice for glacier calving into the North Atlantic. This is why it’s uncertain if the ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica are growing or shrinking. Antarctica is so cold that surface melting will not occur, but Greenland is a different story by 50+ degrees Fahrenheit.
Once the GS is cut off, the regional climates of northern Europe will no longer be the recipient of the tropical heat energy. With time, their climate will emulate that of Canada above the 45 degree latitude line.
The Polar ice cap will grow to include the North Sea and will attach itself to the continent. Ocean currents, which are the conveyors of surface energy around the globe will be modified, energy wise, to the point that the Arctic ice cap will, over time, expand. As the ice cap grows heat from the Sun will be deflected and the ice pack will continue to enlarge. Greenland’s seasonal temperatures will start to decrease, the ice pack will begin to grow and the warm-cold cycle will continue as it has historically.
Northern Europe and the North Sea oil platforms will become uninhabitable over time. The increase in ice coverage will reflect the Sun’s energies during the summer, and the Earth will begin a cool cycle. The
increase in ice coverage will take water from the oceans thus they will recede.
What regional climate changes will result from a continued warming trend, say an extreme four to six degrees Fahrenheit, for the next two centuries?
Here’s my list:
Increasing regional temperatures over time would cause the global temperature to cycle to a cool down. There are several “safeguard” mechanisms in place to prevent a warm up, but none to prevent an ice age. During Earth’s history, Antarctica has proven to be its thermostat. Earth has never been overheated since the initial cool down and as long as the thermostat is in place, it will not be.
The Polar ice cap will grow to include the North Sea and will attach itself to the continent. Ocean
currents, which are the conveyors of surface energy around the globe will be
modified, energy wise, to the point that the Arctic ice cap will, over time,
expand. As the ice cap grows heat from
the Sun will be deflected and the ice pack will continue to enlarge. Greenland’s seasonal temperatures will start
to decrease, the ice pack will begin to grow and the warm-cold cycle will
continue as it has historically.
Northern Europe and the North Sea oil platforms will
become uninhabitable over time. The
increase in ice coverage will reflect the Sun’s energies during the summer, and
the Earth will begin a cool cycle. The
increase in ice coverage will take water from the oceans thus they will
recede.
What regional climate changes will result from
a continued warming trend, say an extreme four to six degrees Fahrenheit, for
the next two centuries?
[1] Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Press release
dated March 25, 2010
[2] Density of the cold salt water = 1.030+; Ice melt
density = 1.000
[3] The boundary is called a thermocline.
I think I'll take this post and see if Google Translate can make it intelligible for me.
From the bit that I understand of what you wrote, I believe I like this post. But don't quote me on that, since I'm operating on about 5% understanding here.
I was following this guy until he said "Canada above the 45 degree latitude line." I'd driven across that one enough times it had stuck in my aging memory, and it crosses Oregon. There's some good, orginal thinking that produced some of his copy-and-paste synthesis, but it didn't originate with someone who decided to write a bit of fiction from scientific talking points.
You're list is garbage and was basically re-iterated from a speech Al Gore gave. You are a fool. Global warming was deemed a hoax by thousands of scientists in 2009. That is why the left wing idiots had to change it to "Climate change". What a crock of sh*t. Just drill the oil already. We need it!!! Go Hilary Go. If you run in 2016 on the premise you will allow all drilling in the US with very little restrictions, I WILL vote for you. But I doubt this will happen
Climate change is NOT a hoax. The vast majority of the world agrees that the earth's climate is in a state of change EXCEPT for the US. We apparently, have too much political @!$%# and money on the table to have an intelligent discussion about this subject. The masses are hysterical, "informed" by an ill informed, politically motivated media and ultimately gets most of its information from the greatest "scientific" writing of all, the Bible. Americans cannot have a decent, thoughtful discussion about this because we are too stupid to understand it.
Bringit, you need to get your fact straight. And you need to understand that unregulated anything in this country has always resulted in disaster if not outright collapse, that in turn have collapsed human lives and economies. But, hell, that's OK bc a. not in your backyard, or b. why do I have to care about this, when it all comes to pass, I'll be dead. No so fast, baby. It has already happened, and more is on the horizon. This is why we have regulations, because of history. Drill, Baby, Drill is the mantra of morons. Period.
Go read "The Tragedy of the Commons" and become enlightened.
@SL Cabbie:
You imply that 45°N does not pass through Canada, but you are wrong. Almost all of southern Ontario, which contains almost a third of Canada's population, is south of 45°N. Check your atlas--or Google Earth.
Part of Nova Scotia is also south of 45°N.
Russia claimed the Arctic Sea and its resources during 2001, and again in 2007 when they planted their flag on the Arctic ocean floor @ the North Pole...
A countries claims to off-shore resources is dictated by the extent of their continental shelf. The Russia shelf is defined by the underwater Lomonosov Ridge and Mendeleev Ridge, extensions of the Eurasian continent. These underwater mountain ranges extend almost to Greenland...
"Russia does not want conflict with the other countries surrounding the Arctic," says Vladimir Kotlyakov, honourary president of the Russian Geographical Society and an Arctic expert.
"But naturally nobody wants to give up their territory.
"So we will make a huge effort to hang on to the territory which we think belongs to Russia."
For more information see - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-11381773
Sounds simular to the stance China has taken concerning the South & North China seas.
For imformation on the current military stand-off in the South China Sea... see http://interceder.net/latest_news/china-philippines-spratly
IMO - WWIII will be fought over access to; water, natural resources, and cheap energy. China, Russia, and the USA will be key players...
Arctic sea ice coverage has returned to NORMAL ranges and is still there after 3+months...
reference - http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/images/daily_images/N_stddev_timeseries.png
The blue line is current Sea Ice Coverage for 2012...
The black line is the data average sense the data has been collected, 1979 to 2000...
The grey area is the statistical ERROR for the data base...
Anything inside the grey area is considered NORMAL...
Prior to the last week of April the trend was INCREASING and had almost contacted the data average line...
During the last week of April the trend has stablized but has remained within the NORMAL range for 3+months this year...
The 2007 data is included, because it was the minimum ice coverage data...
The Sea Ice Coverage varies about 10+Million square kilometers. It is not static through-out the year...
For a more extensive map go to the National Snow and Ice Data Center @ Boulder, CO... see http://nsidc.org/
IMO - The ice extent will drop faster than the average due to the thickness of the new ice. But the ice levels will continue to INCREASE during the coming years and the SIC will return to the norms. Just as the other ice levels around the world are currently doing...
Opposition to drilling arctic Alaska has been stiff in Washington D.C.. Even if the reasons aren't sound from a scientific standpoint they are still good for America. Too much of Alaska's oil is used overseas. All of the oil companies are responsible for sending American oil overseas. How does that make any sense? Exxon, Conoco/Phillips and British Petroleum control most oil reserves in Alaska. BP rakes in billions of dollars for England by refining Alaska oil then selling gas to Americans in the lower 48 at inflated prices. Alaskans seem to be getting stiffed by everybody. Nobody I am aware of pays higher gas prices in America than Alaskans do. Alaska's politicians are beholding to every oil company here and basically serve at their pleasure. Our current governor is a fine example. Politicians here get handouts from Pebble and Donlin Creek gold mines too but nothing compared to contributions they rake in from the oil giants. The mines will do more harm to our way of life than all of the oil companies combined because their waste products are simply collected on site. Without exception reservoirs fail at some point and leak into our rivers. The Kuskokwim River has more mercury in it than any river in America. No state needs Federal intervention like Alaska does. I don't like most environmentalists but they, too, are good for Alaska. When oil from Alaska is used exclusively in America then Alaskans will support arctic drilling even though our politicians are bought and paid for by oil companies, but not sooner. Nothing good can come from major corporations mining gold in Alaska. Nature cannot reverse the damage mine waste does to our land and waters.
Oil is a global commodity. It is cheaper for us to sell Alaska oil to China and import oil from Canada and South and Central America. If we used all our own oil it would increase prices. Only if we are allowed to drill more would it decrease prices.
The russians have already been layin claim in the Arctic.Where we been? Old News...
Hilary Clinton spends nearly twenty years standing firmly against Arctic oil and now she is suddenly promoting it--world-class hypocrite.
She stands firmly for votes and then flips to stand firmly for votes.
Hell, the Earth is running fullspeed ahead into a crisis, why not capitalize on the remains of what used to be polar caps? At least they might have the time and the resources to further build their space station in the sky, where they can sit back, and enjoy the show.
Jesus is coming, any day now
You know, we really don't have to worry about any of this anyway. Harold Camping said the world was going to end last November. The Mayans say it will be this December. Al Gore says it's all over in 2016. So with all these expert (cough, cough) authorities, why should we even plan on life beyond a few years?
Because your spirit, like mercury goes back to whence it came from, when the body is broken and can not support life any longer. And we incarnate again, and again...same old @!$%#, different day and all that. Well some people, actually try to transcend the hate, the bigotry, the greediness, the never get enough pricks who literally screw your daughters and sisters to death...what a nice thing for the unbalanced male to go amok through life...killing people and calling it - REFORMATION???? Giving them rights, democracy - WHILE HERE WE HAVE NOTHING BUT A FREEKING LIE PLAYING OUT RIGHT NOW!!! And no one is STEPPING up to the plate to impeach the bastard, along with the BUSHES!!! and complicity to the CLINTON"S. It has been CRAP for so long now, all we see is dirt, and no one remembers what CLEAN is anymore. I do! I know, it is NOT supposed to be like this. Only CORRUPTION at the top, ALLOWS corruption to grow underneath it, everywhere - CORPORATIONS of people who want to SELL YOU @!$%# - whatever manmade chemical it is made of - and people mass murdering other people everywhere. And this must stop.
To CUBSFAN2012
24 Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. 2 “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
4 Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. 6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.
9 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
15 “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’[a] spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. 18 Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. 19 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 20 Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.
22 “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. 23 At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. 24 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you ahead of time.
Crazy , see the truth is stranger than fiction. Was it not Obama and Clinton who diligently tore down the "oil " peoples and candidates during the election...how long will "the people" allow lies to be spewed as a career , right to our face. If it was our neighbors or people we totally had to deal with in daily lives we would be infuriated over the lack of respect. These people are crazy to think we will stand for this anymore. We need to simply stop buying any oil until the govt. gets out of that business , allows private industry only to control it, and then if "people" choose to live without we come up with new ways to live without it and choose not to buy it. No tax dollars to offer tax breaks and no taxing the oil companies and the consumer and the import, the govt double and triple dips...thats why the price goes up
I guess they didn't hear about the report that Arctic drilling will be delayed this year because of too much ice.
http://phys.org/news/2012-05-heavy-ice-shell-alaska-arctic.html
Drill baby drill ! The more fossil fuel we burn the more it frees the Artic of ice for drilling. A win , win situation. Too bad that is not true. No such thing as global warming.