Super Eco

Photo credit: gim2468, flickr

The arctic ice cap is melting even faster than we thought it would, but the melted ice cap will give us access to a wealth of natural resources previously trapped beneath ten feet of sea ice. Concerned wildlife experts are promoting an international park spanning the northern Canadian archipelago and western Greenland. This international stretch of water, ice, and islands is the best hope for polar wildlife to survive as the ice cap melts and human industry begins to study the natural resources revealed there.

Wildlife habitat is shrinking. Summer thaws contribute to rising sea levels. By 2050, there will be a relatively small patch of ice remaining year round, and it will be a long time before we restore balance by cleaning up the atmosphere. The time to save what we can of the frozen wilderness north of the Arctic Circle, scientists say, is now. Polar bears, narwhal, beluga and bowhead whales, walrus, musk oxen, caribou, arctic wolf, and migratory birds are at risk.

The World Wildlife Fund thinks habitat in the proposed park area can be preserved as the ice cap melts around it. But the politics of the situation have brought together an odd alliance of Inuit native people and the fossil fuel industry. The Inuit have hunting rights to protect, and they dispute the endangered status of the polar bears. The fossil fuel industry sees reserves an order of magnitude larger than those in Alaska and they are eager to begin exploration and drilling.

So the rush is on with oilmen and conservationists staking claims, and native peoples protecting their rights. Things are heating up. How long before Ben and Jerry's recognizes this new market?