Rhein on Energy and Climate

Arctic Illusions

The gradual melting of the Arctic ice cover offers attractive prospects for substantially shorter shipping lanes between Europe and the Pacific. That may become a welcome by-effect of global warming.

But it also raises speculations and appetite about what may be the last unexplored and non-attributed oil and gas reserves on our tiny planet. According to tentative estimates, these might add as much as quarter to presently known reserves of oil and gas. That may seem huge, but in fact it would allow humanity no more than another “lease” of 10 years, say from 2050 to 2060, before closing the age of fossil energy.

Should humanity afford another 10 years’ lease? Do we forget that CO2 emissions must be cut by half before mid-century if we want to keep global temperatures within tolerable limits of two extra centigrades?

Some 50 years ago, humanity was wise enough to impose a ban on mineral activity in Antarctica. It should replicate that ban for the Arctic Sea. The UN has done well recently in rejecting a Russian claim for “extending” its continental shelf into the Arctic Sea and allowing Russia to become the legitimate owner of whatever mineral resources to be discovered there. The EU should take a diplomatic initiative within the UN aiming at blocking all drilling and exploitation activity for oil and gas in the Arctic Sea.

Humanity better focus on tapping the huge solar power potential that the Sahara and other deserts offer, which is more than sufficient to supply humanity with energy for all eternity. Let the “poisoned” Arctic treasures rest in peace!

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