“Suggest why some groups and communities view the melting of the Greenland’s ice sheet as an opportunity rather than a threat” (10)
Some groups and communities view the melting of Greenland’s ice sheet as an opportunity rather than a threat because the melting ice creates some commercial advantages for the Arctic region the new route available from the melted ice will be the quickest way of travelling from Europe to the Pacific and Asia. This also increases the tourism opportunities because the tourist ships will be able to transport to the northern Canada that would normally be covered by ice.
As the rapidly melting ice offers lots of new different commercial opportunities in shipping, tourism and oil and gas extraction, the world’s largest economies are struggling to get hold of the region in the Arctic so that they have all the rights to it. A certain region in the Arctic is predicted to actually contain 30% of the world’s undiscovered gas and 13%% of undiscovered oil. In addition more oil can be used by groups of Inuit for essentials like the uses of fossil fuels and it will create lots of new jobs. In Alaska because of the new drilling activity which creates lots of new job opportunities and incomes for the local economy, which means more Inuit, get the job opportunities like this. Furthermore, there are currently four more mining operation being setting up and soon, it will provide lots of new jobs in Greenland.
In 2007, the new Passage between Canada and Arctic melted enough to allow shipping for the first time to pass through that area. This will also allow more opportunities for activities like offshore oil exploration in the area. The economic impact could be important because new and expanded shipping routes can reduce the time between Asia, North America and Europe, and oil companies like Shell are eager to get the opportunities for fossil fuels, which believe lies beneath the pristine Arctic waters.
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