MELTING ARCTIC ICE CAUSES WORRY

New Delhi, 1 December 2006

NEW DELHI, December 1 (INFA): The melting of the Arctic ice is now causing major oil companies to make a beeline towards this region for extraction of oil and gas. The US Geological Survey’s announcement that a quarter of the world’s undiscovered oil and gas reserves lie under the Arctic Ocean, has led to the development of offshore oil deposits and gas fields in the region.

Besides the scurry for oil and gas, the melting ice is opening up new frontiers in tourism, with shipping companies offering voyages to the North Pole, something thought of as impossible earlier! Only well-equipped icebreaks have been able to attempt such journeys previously.

The effects of such a disaster could mean: flooding of low-lying coastal areas, increase in ocean levels causing disruption in ocean currents and changes in regional climates, and threat to existing species of animals and indigenous people. Amidst these worrying factors, could anyone be prepared for something more disastrous!

The fact that global warming is causing the arctic ice to melt so rapidly that much of it could disappear by 2100 is cause for much concern.

Environmentalists are alarmed at this entire flow of events.  Besides the disastrous effects already mentioned, spillages and leakages caused by oil extraction could pollute the pristine environment causing massive damage to its fragile ecosystem.

According to the Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC), between 1996 and 2004, there were 4530 spills of more than 1.9 million gallons of diesel, oil, acid, and other chemicals along the Alaskan border alone! One wonders what dreadful scenarios the recent developments in the arctic would unfold.

Strangely, the very fossil fuels that are responsible for global warming and consequently the melting of the Arctic ice, are now being extracted from the very same melting ice created by its emissions. 

The scenario is ironical.  As the saying goes…. “Fact is sometimes stranger than fiction”.

LARGEST NATIONAL PARK

HYDERABAD, December 1 (INFA):  The luxuriant green hilly tracks in the Godawari Basin in Andhra Pradesh that are replete with tigers,  panthers, gaur, cheetal, sambar, black buck, barking deer, giant squirrel, sloth bear will soon become the largest national park in the State.

The State houses four national parks of which three are located around Hyderabad and one in Tirupati. ----INFA