As the Wikileaks cables show, the US has spoken of “increased military threats in the Arctic” and Russia has predicted “armed intervention” in the future.
Countries are spending billions on Arctic weaponry, threatening the long-term peace of the region. Nuclear-powered ice-breakers, submarines and fighter jets are being purchased by Arctic states with overlapping claims on the area around the North Pole.
The best way to maintain the peace there is to make its resources off-limits. That's why we're campaigning for a global sanctuary and a ban on oil drilling and industrial fishing.
Just like in Antarctica, we need an Arctic Ocean dedicated to peace and science.
No country owns the Arctic. It should stay that way.
In the last 30 years, we’ve lost as much as three-quarters of the floating ice cap at the top of the world. The volume of that sea ice measured by satellites in the summer, when it reaches its smallest, has shrunk so fast that scientists say it’s now in a ‘death spiral’.
For over 800,000 years, ice has been a permanent feature of the Arctic ocean. It’s melting because of our use of dirty fossil fuel energy, and in the near future it could be ice free for the first time since humans walked the Earth. This would be not only devastating for the people, polar bears, narwhals, walruses and other species that live there - but for the rest of us too.
The ice at the top of the world reflects much of the sun’s heat back into space and keeps our whole planet cool, stabilising the weather systems that we depend on to grow our food. Protecting the ice means protecting us all.
You save the Artic more about this article @ www.savethearctic.org
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