The Arctic Council: Gatekeeper or Doormat to the World’s Next Major Resource Battle?
Over the last decade, a coalescence of different factors has shifted the search for natural resources such as oil and gas to the Arctic. Advances in exploration, drilling, and extraction technologies have helped mitigate the traditionally cost-prohibitive factors of developing ice-locked reserves. G...
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Digital Commons @ American University Washington College of Law
2011
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| Online Access: | https://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/peel_alumni/72 https://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/context/peel_alumni/article/1071/viewcontent/viewcontent.cgi |
| Summary: | Over the last decade, a coalescence of different factors has shifted the search for natural resources such as oil and gas to the Arctic. Advances in exploration, drilling, and extraction technologies have helped mitigate the traditionally cost-prohibitive factors of developing ice-locked reserves. Geopolitical concerns about the waning global supply of oil and gas have also driven countries to explore for these resources in the Arctic. However, the primary force behind this focus is the undeniable fact that the Earth’s changing climate is melting away the Arctic’s ice sheet and permafrost, making the region’s oil and gas reserves accessible for the first time. |
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