Melting Arctic Ice is Not an Economic Window of Opportunity

Conservative columnist Marc Thiessen recently stated a view typical of people who display little to no knowledge about human actions and their impact on global warming.

As one of Trump’s apologists, Thiessen thought “the president’s idea of buying Greenland is far from absurd.”

“What makes Greenland particularly valuable to the United States is global warming”,  Thiessen dismissively stated.  “The unavoidable receding of Arctic sea ice will open a new sea route in the Arctic that can be used for both commercial and military vessels.”

This near-sighted view that arctic ice receding is “unavoidable” is only because humans are doing very little to stop what’s causing it   It’s the same shallow mindset that says more CO2 from burning fossil fuels will increase plant growth while ignoring that much of that CO2 also adds to the greenhouse effect that’s warming the planet at record rates. 

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro thought the fires consuming the Amazon Rain Forest in August were good for economic development, not comprehending the Amazon’s crucial environmental service to Earth’s oxygen supply, along with the forest’s ability to absorb CO2.

Thiessen and every other individual who looks at man-made global warming through rose-colored glasses diminishes the larger view of how increased green house gases (GHGs) in our atmosphere are doing far more to destroy life as we know it than adding to it.

Sea level rise from global ice melts is just one of the destructive results of a warming planet.  With arctic and glacier ice melting at record rates, were does all this melted ice go?

Polar and glacier ice melting is at historically rapid rates and sea levels could rise by up to an additional 4 feet by 2100—with roughly 1 foot of this increase occurring by midcentury—putting nearly 3 billion people, or 40 percent of the world’s population that lives near coasts, at risk of severe flooding and erosion.

The Thwaites glacier in West Antarctica, referred to as “the doomsday glacier”, is on the verge of collapsing. That glacier holds two feet of sea level but more importantly, it is the “backstop” for four other glaciers which holds an additional 10-13 feet of sea level rise. When Thwaites collapses it will take most of West Antarctica with it. 

As arctic and glacier ice melts, the Earth loses its reflective capabilities to send the suns heat back out into space. Also, the permafrost in these areas that melt releases methane trapped thousands of years ago.  Methane is a GHG that when released into the atmosphere warms the planet 86 times faster than CO2. More warming means more flooding displacing millions of people that no economy of scale will be able to keep up with. Higher temps mean more forest fires that reduces earth’s ability to absorb CO2 and stave off the threat of global warming. 

Polar ice and land glaciers serve as the earth’s air conditioner. As they melt away, winters can become a thing of the past and summers, needless to say, will be life threatening.

As Earth’s ice masses rapidly deplete there will be no need for a new sea route in the Arctic because conditions will no longer be commercially viable that requires it. Those commercial and military vessels Theissen gleefully thinks will benefit from all this will likely be busy rescuing refugees forced to flee their communities or carrying life saving food supplies to areas that have had their natural resources wiped out by extreme climate conditions.