U.S. Sinks Arctic Accord Due To Climate Change Differences

[50 shades of black + 254]

According to Reuters, U.S. has refused to sign an agreement on challenges in the Arctic due to discrepancies over climate change wording, diplomats said on Tuesday, jeopardizing cooperation in the polar region at the sharp edge of global warming.Temperatures in the Arctic are rising at twice the rate of the rest of the globe, and melting ice has opened vast untapped oil and gas reserves to potential commercial exploitation. A meeting of nations bordering the Arctic in Rovaniemi in northern Finland on Tuesday was supposed to frame a two-year agenda to balance the challenges of climate change with sustainable development of mineral wealth.But Finland’s Foreign Minister Timo Soini said the joint declaration was “off the table” and would be replaced by a short statement from ministers attending the conference. A diplomatic source with knowledge of the discussions said the United States balked at signing as it disagreed with wording in the declaration stating that climate change was a serious threat to the Arctic. A second source confirmed that.

[pinto + 293]

 It's shameful to disregard the fragility of the arctic region...

[Pavel + 384]

Of course, attitude about a refusal to acknowledge climate change is a result of closing ears and eyes on world around us. This is not the attitude based on scientific facts.

[damirUSBiH + 327]

.... new access to Arctic oil, uranium, diamonds.

[rainman + 263]

"Temperatures in the Arctic are rising at twice the rate of the rest of the globe, and melting ice has opened vast untapped oil and gas reserves to potential commercial exploitation." I wonder myself what’s wrong with these people? Is it just for the power, are they simply greedy? Don’t they have grandkids?

[ThunderBlade + 231]

"new opportunities for trade"?! Melt the ice! So we can transport goods faster by boat!? Yes, they are saying this....  

[ronwagn + 6,290]

13 hours ago, pinto said:

 It's shameful to disregard the fragility of the arctic region...

It doesn't seem fragile to me. Where is the travel through the area? The Russians are mastering it only by building dozens of nuclear powered ice breakers. 

[ronwagn + 6,290]

12 hours ago, ThunderBlade said:

"new opportunities for trade"?! Melt the ice! So we can transport goods faster by boat!? Yes, they are saying this....  

Yes indeed. Russia is still having to use nuclear powered icebreakers to do it. 

[footeab@yahoo.com + 2,190]

The world was freezing for 500 years and in the last 150 has stopped freezing and this is a problem.... Uh, no.  This is called science... If YOU actually are rational, you MAY want to figure out WHY the earth NATURALLY freezes and thaws.... Just an observation from a lowly "stupid" "inbred" "illiterate" engineer.