The Arctic's extreme cold is breaking even the world's most advanced military tech

[Tantor]

It's interesting the wording used in the article, words like "frontier", "a race to control" and "future conflict". It sounds like the conquest of the Artic is almost noble however the arctic is already owned by other countries like Canada, Denmark (via Greenland), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia and Sweden. That means your "conflict" will be with one of these countries. Russia might be a push over at the moment but the rest are in NATO which means that other members WILL come to their assistance. It might not be pretty.

It's between US/EU/Israel, and China/Russia/Brics. The old Western power bloc vs the newer kids on the block. I don't think you'll see open warfare between the major parties. They are using their proxies at the moment.

 

[mbk34]

It's between US/EU/Israel, and China/Russia/Brics. The old Western power bloc vs the newer kids on the block. I don't think you'll see open warfare between the major parties. They are using their proxies at the moment.

Russia can barely fight it's next door neighbour at the moment and, if it continues in Ukraine, then it's likely to fall apart in the next few years anyway. It only owns 20% of the Arctic anyway.

China needs the Arctic sea route but it doesn't have to fight for that. If it takes Russia's Pacific territories in the next few years, which seems likely, then it might have more of a claim on the Arctic. She certainly isn't a friend of Russia's and none of the other Brics countries have any real investment in the Arctic.

I'm not sure how Israel got included here but most (probably all) of the EU quietly believes Israel have committed genocide in Palestine and want little to do with her any more. In all honesty, we really don't want anything to do with America either. Interestingly Canada has the largest share of the Arctic but you didn't mention them.

So who exactly are you planning on fighting in the Arctic? The other interesting question is would America win? Obviously you pay a huge amount in taxes for an impressive military but would it actually work in those conditions? Currently F35's spend 4 days in maintenance after every 4 hours of flight time and that's in good weather. Aircraft carriers are great but would you want to bet a $15b ship against modern missiles, modern submarines and drone swarms? Which just leaves grunts fighting in the snow at -40F. They might even start to question why they're there and it will be difficult coming up with any believable moral justification (other than just greed for minerals).

 

[jeffbert]

All I can say is, everything seems to be melting up there and it doesn't seem like a place I'd like to live in or visit. Swamps are notorious for mosquitoes and other dangers. If we still have some cold places, be happy and let it stay natural.

You forgot to mention quicksand!

 

[abactuon]

Who will lead all this?
We need people at the level of Charles Martel, who stopped the expansion of the Arab Caliphate in 732 AD.
Or King John III Sobieski defending Vienna from the Ottoman Turks in 1683.
Today's gamers with their degenerate artificial intelligence.

 

[mbk34]

This is typical climate change doomer misdirection. "Climate change" was previously known as "global warming" and had to change names because despite the calls of the apocalypse, we are all still here chugging along.

The reason for the article is because access to the Arctic is getting much easier. It's getting easier because there's less ice. There's less ice because it's getting warmer. Countries like China are now looking at running shipping routes where there used to be solid ice. In Russia, towns used to be built on stilts on top of the permafrost. It was called permafrost because the ground had always been frozen. These towns are now sinking into the mud.

 

[Vilkas]

Some countries are ready...

 

[jeffbert]

The reason for the article is because access to the Arctic is getting much easier. It's getting easier because there's less ice. There's less ice because it's getting warmer. Countries like China are now looking at running shipping routes where there used to be solid ice. In Russia, towns used to be built on stilts on top of the permafrost. It was called permafrost because the ground had always been frozen. These towns are now sinking into the mud.

Yet, for how long have we been keeping track of the weather? Compared to the age of the Earth, it is an infinitesimal amount of time. It is like an insect that just hatched in Spring, worried about the weather cooling in the Fall. Simply could not imagine the cyclic nature of weather.

Perhaps there are weather cycles so long we will never realize they even exist.

The idea that we are running out of time to take adequate action-- let China & India take the action, both are major polluters!