Deep sea mining puts $560 billion in land extraction at risk — report
Even in optimal scenarios, the activity would generate only $6.25 million in tax revenue for countries involved, says Planet Tracker.
While the melting of the Arctic is bad news for everyone, mining companies may be able to find the positive side of such grim news, as the situation could open up access to immense mineral reserves and attract billions of dollars in investment.
The team at 911metallurgist has put together this infographic that reveals just how rich the area is.
7 Comments
Conodo Mose
Only fools believe there is any form of melt-off of polar ice.
The Arctic was not below its 95% limit, on average, during the past winter as some wish. A
strong El Nino contributed to lower than average ice extent but El Nino peaked three
months ago and signals now indicate a downtrend. For certain, one low ice year
does not signal a melt-off as peak Arctic ice extent in 2016 was more than 420%
above its minimum and Arctic ice extent ranged well above previous minimum extent
levels. Parkinson (2000) Arctic ice studies indicate “the
possibility of close connections between the sea ice cover and major
oscillatory patterns in the atmosphere and oceans.” Greenland’s ice mass
balance for 1990-2013 period indicate an overall gain in ice mass balance and
surface mass ice budget for the continent of Greenland since September 2015
range well above historical average (Danish Meteorological Institute, 2016)
In the Antarctic polar ice continues to expand in area with maximum ice extent one year
ago reaching the highest extent ever observed of 16.8 million square kilometers
or 930% above its low extent of million square kilometers in 2015 an average
extent level. The Antarctic seems to be growing larger by triple or quadruple
the rate of any appearance of decreasing ice extent in the Arctic as Antarctic
ice in winter 2015 ranged well above its average since record-keeping began in
1979.
During the past decades the air’s CO2 concentration rose 50 ppm (that’s 15%),
causing world’s climate alarmists to claim the earth warmed at a faster rate
and to a higher temperature than what had previously been experienced over the
past two millennia while ignoring the fact that there is not a direct link
between rising CO2 and temperature. As proof of this, the snow and ice melt
over all of Antarctica is non-existent over the entire 30-year period of historical
observation (Tedesco and Monaghan, 2010. EOS, Transactions, American
Geophysical Union), a conclusion also supported by Zwally and Giovinetto (2011)
in their evaluation across Antarctica of both Input-minus-Output Method (IOM) data
from European Remote-sensing Satellites and the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE)
data.
DD
god bless and good luck sir
Sven
Excellent post.
Pyrope
This post is a triumph of misrepresentation and misunderstanding. The Danish data that you are quoting shows surface mass balance, not total ice mass. This data does not account for iceberg calving so just because it is positive doesn’t mean that the ice sheet isn’t shrinking; it has been positive throughout the recorded history and yet the ice sheet certainly isn’t growing. You are also playing the old fudger’s game of taking one year and comparing it to an average. Again, this is the sort of disingenuous practice that people like to employ to make it sound as though they know what they are talking about, while actually propagating rubbish. The climate is a natural system; it varies on both short term and long term time scales. If you want to understand where things are going you absolutely have to look at long term trends, not a single snapshot. The long term trend, again drawn from the Danish Meteorological Institute, is that while yearly snowfall is not changing, melting and run-off is steadily rising. Replenishment of the ice sheet is reducing. In the last ten years we have had four of the five greatest melting years on record. In seven of those ten years run-off was higher than for any one of the 35 years between 1962 and 1997. The very Tedesco & Monahan study that you cite begins with the sentence “Scientists have observed large increases in melting on the Greenland Ice Sheet in recent decades.” So yes, it is melting.
I see that you are citing Parkinson’s study from 2000. That study shows there may be many reasons why ice area is shrinking, but it does most certainly show that there is shrinking going on. The ‘recent reversals’ that are studied in that work may well have been due to fluctuations in ‘major oscillatory patterns’, but they were shown to be overprinted onto a monotonous long term downward trend. Since then, the downward trend has reasserted itself, that was 16 years ago after all. Did you know she also published a whole heap of new data since then? No? Well how about you try out her 2008 study on long term trends. That data shows that between 1979 and 2006 the Arctic lost an average of more than 45,000 square kilometres of ice EVERY YEAR. Note, this is data, not belief. Data that show an area of ice about the same size as New Jersey and New Hampshire, combined, disappearing each year. For an international perspective, that about the same size as Estonia, and there are 66 entire countries smaller than that.
That brings me on to your attempts to use Antarctic data to support your untrue claims about the Arctic. This attempt is seriously flawed for one major reason: they are fundamentally different systems. For a start, the Antarctic is significantly colder then the Arctic. Again, your T&M citation makes very clear that the Antarctic is getting warmer. However, as they also point out, most of the warming is happening in the spring and fall, both times when the temperatures are still well below zero, not during the summer when most of the melting happens. Ice doesn’t really care whether the temperature is -20 or -10 °C, it isn’t going to melt too well. That doesn’t mean that climate change isn’t happening down there. And again, far from supporting your claim that the Antarctic ice sheet is growing, T&M make very clear that the long term ice volume trends down there are “negligible”. The ice is neither growing nor shrinking.
You can cut-and-paste as many fancy words from Zwally and Giovinetto’s work as you like, but their final conclusion is that Antarctica lost an average of 31 billion tonnes of ice EACH YEAR, between 1992 and 2001. So, no, that study does not support your statements. The fact that I have been able to take apart your fatuous, propagandist claptrap using mostly sources that you claim support your arguments shows just how badly you have misrepresented and misused their information. I do not ‘believe’ in climate change, there is no need. To believe in the retreat of Arctic ice would be like believing in the mail man; it’s happening, it is supported by a huge amount of hard data, and it will continue to be there whether you believe it or not. I work up in the north; I have walked on rocks in glacial valleys that have never been exposed to the sunlight before, in valleys that my predecessor’s could hardly get even half way up to where I was stood. You can bellow that the sky is green for all you like, but the joke’s on you.
Uramin
I was always wondering how they calculate undiscovered mineral resources? Undiscovered is even less reliable than speculative resources, because no data available in this case at all. 1,669 trillion cubic feet of gas reported undiscovered? Seriously? At least, authors should provide the range, but not precise numbers.
Gary
Well if it does come about, then you can take polar bears off the “difficulties list”!
MarinerKing
It makes a great subject for a Sci-fi thriller.