Thursday, September 20, 2012



Victoria Cummings
9/18/12

Race Is On as Ice Melt Reveals Artic Treasures
Article by Elizabeth Rosenthal

            Elizabeth Rosenthal’s article “Race Is On as Ice Melt Reveals Artic Treasures” is about how resourceful oils, gases and minerals are being discovered due to the rapid pace of climate change and melting ice in Greenland. This occurrence is making these resources more accessible. Because these resources are being noticed by many nations around the world including China there is a concern for the United Stated and its allies and their rights in this area. China is used its wealth to gain access to the newly discovered resources by purchasing companies and making contributions to the located governments of the Arctic territory.
            These new conditions will affect the nations of the Arctic Territory by creating new opportunities with increased interest and investment from countries around the world. This will affect the ability of the United States and western nations to become more energy independent with access to minerals, oils and other natural resources. Unfortunately the rapid climate change could also have negative effects for all of us even though there are positive results discussed in this article, however only time will tell.  Positively this could also create a joining of nations that are currently divided with a common interest and purpose. Hopefully everyone will benefit from the increased access to needed natural resources around the world and also bring more attention to the need to deal with the issue with global warming.
            The article was well written and expresses both concern and attention to an area of the world that never had a lot of interest. Hopefully it will present less conflict between the nations of the world and more of a joining to benefit from the natural resources and increased accessibility to trade routes. There should also be expanded focus on the causes and effects of global warming and how to correct that growing concern for the earth.      

1 comment:

  1. I found this article very interesting. Because human beings are currently so dependent on non-renewable fuels I think this article is very interesting. What it brings to light is that our burning of fossil fuels, while it does damage our ozone and cause global warming, is revealing to us new resources. You mentioned in your article that the melting ice could have several negative effects. I think this could be improved by the addition of a small list of some of the possible negative effects. You could also discuss further how these newfound resources could untie the countries. Alternatively, it would be interesting if you offered a counter argument to Rosenthal's and discussed why these new resources could cause war over the precious land. Overall it was very interesting, and I think there are several points upon which you could expand if you wanted to.

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