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As lucrative oil reserves, rare mineral deposits and shipping lanes emerge amid the rapidly disappearing Arctic ice sheet, the eyes of many nations are turning north. This week, the eight member states of the Arctic Council decided at their meeting in Kiruna, Sweden, to admit six non-Arctic nations as observers, most notably China. New Scientist examines the implications
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The prospect of a deep sea "gold rush" opening a controversial new frontier for mining on the ocean floor has moved a step closer. The United Nations has published its first plan for managing the extraction of so-called "nodules" - small mineral-rich rocks - from the seabed.
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Researchers have published their most advanced calculation for the likely impact of melting ice on global sea levels. The EU-funded team says the ice sheets and glaciers could add 36.8cm to the oceans by 2100.
[ More ]The Arctic Council, a once-obscure regional forum that had little to show for itself, has nations queuing to participate, as melting ice makes shipping, tourism and resource extraction a reality in the nebulously delineated region.
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National security officials worried by rapid loss of Arctic summer sea ice overlook threat of permanent global food shortages. Senior US government officials are to be briefed at the White House this week on the danger of an ice-free Arctic in the summer within two years.
[ More ]Top Pentagon contractor Lockheed Martin is adapting many of the technologies it developed for the government to commercial ventures at sea, including the external fuel-tank technology used on the Space Shuttle.
[ More ]Minerals, such as rare earth metals, are increasingly becoming an important commodity in a resource-constrained world economy. As a result new frontiers both onshore and offshore, to the depths of the ocean, are emerging around the world.
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The warming of the Arctic is spurring a rush for oil resources but is also causing a 'gold rush' for Mammoth tusks in Russia.
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Japan keeps finding treasure in deep-sea mud. For the second time in two years, a Japanese team has announced vast deposits of rare earth elements on the floor of the Pacific Ocean.
[ More ]The Arctic could be the 21st-century version of the Great Game, which Russia and Britain played among the mountains and deserts of Central Asia in the 19th century. The prize then was the riches of India; today, it’s new shipping routes and untapped natural resources, including an estimated 13 percent of the earth’s oil and 30 percent of its natural gas.
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