The Emerging Arctic World Order
2012/09/20
Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, President of Iceland speaks at the Arctic Imperative Summit, 2012 in Girdwood, Alaska. Well worth the 30 minute listen – this is one politician that speaks the truth to power. Wake up, folks!
Thanks to Doug Grandt, climate warrior extraordinaire, for sharing this link.
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350 or bust 
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I think President Grímsson is very kind to Hilary Clinton and Vladimir Putin. I suspect he knows exactly why they have done so little to help protect the Arctic but he chooses not to say it (so as not to alienate them). The really scary thing in all of this is that the Antarctic Treaty System was established in 1959 and it took them over 30 years to devise and implement an international agreement protecting the Antarctic from resource exploitation: The Madrid Protocol. We definitely do not have the luxury of being able to spend 30 years discussing it, the exploitation of the Arctic needs to be stopped immediately. Unfortunately, as David Roberts has pointed out, the oil companies are already trading on the future profits they expect to make from exploiting it and if they are prevented from doing so, their share prices will drop like a stone; and oil prices will shoot up. Our politicians know this; but have not got the guts to admit it. Instead they continue to lie to us; and pray that technology alone will avert catastrophe. Sadly, they are wrong; and no politician like to admit that.