“Profiteering from the Arctic Thaw”, from Spiegel Online:
Global warming isn’t necessarily the catastrophe it’s made out to be — at least not for multinational oil companies. Shrinking ice caps would reveal the Arctic’s massive energy sources and shorten tanker routes by thousands of miles.
[...]
The Arctic is a giant treasure trove for energy multinationals. A quarter of the world’s oil and gas reserves are estimated to be hidden underneath its rapidly shrinking ice. At current market values they would be worth $1.5 to $2 trillion. There are even proven oil deposits at the North Pole itself.
Profiteering? When global oil supplies increase by 25%, and distribution becomes quicker, easier, and cheaper, what does this reporter think will happen to prices?
UPDATE: I just noticed something interesting - Spiegel Online provides a “Blogs discussing this story” technorati link at the bottom of the page. Cool.