Over the past couple of months there have been a number of news stories on the 5 countries that have arctic coastlines and are trying to stake a claim to possible resources in the arctic. If nations were allowed to extract these resources, there could be drastic changes in the arctic ecosystem.
1. What resources are nations expected to find in the arctic?
2. Are these resources considered renewable, perpetual, or nonrenewable?
3. How could large scale extraction of these resources cause a shift in climate conditions?
4. What organisms live in the arctic and how would changes in climate affect their survival?
Resources:
Nations Jostle for a Share of the Arctic
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14092469
Global Warmng Polar Bears
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQivFU_H5pk
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
http://arctic.fws.gov/
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Artic Resources Up for Grabs
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1. What resources are nations expected to find in the arctic?
Nations are racing to mine out resources such as gold, uranium, tin, diamonds, coal and other minor ores.
Gold, uranium
2. Are these resources considered renewable, perpetual, or nonrenewable?
Most of the resources found in the Artic, such as gold and uranium, are non renewable. This means that the resources cannot be remade or regenerated in a reasonable amount of time, once they are used up they’re gone.
3. How could large scale extraction of these resource cause a shift in climate conditions?
The large-scale extraction of resources through mining causes both air and water pollution. This pollution attributes to global warming which melts the arctic ice and shortens the winter season.
4. What organisms live in the artic and how would changes in climate affect their survival?
Animals such as caribou and wolves live in the arctic and are greatly affected by the warming climate. Because of the change in weather, these animals are moving their herds to unsuitable places and their herd size is being reduced drastically. Polar bears are also effected by global warming. When there is less ice for the polar bears to live on they have less places to live and migrate to. Less ice also limits their hunting season and forces them to return to the shore faster.
1) Nations are expecting to find many resources in the artic such as gold, diamonds, tin, tungsten, silver, copper, lead, zinc, nickel, uranium, coal, natural gas, and most importantly oil.
2) All of these resources are considered nonrenewable resources which means they do not regenerate during the span of one generation.
3) Large scale mining operations in the artic could change climate conditions because of the increased human activity and pollution that is new to the area. Mining operations require transportation of materials to and from the mine. To do this roads have to be built through the fragile environment, and the semi-trucks that carry the materials belch pollutants into the air. This could cause an increase in global warming forcing the sea ice to retreat earlier. Also runoff from the mines could pollute the oceans and rivers close by affecting local species. These factors could change the climate in the future.
4) Artic organisms such as polar bears, seals, and shorebirds would be affected by climate changes. If global warming continues and the sea ice melts earlier in the season then that means polar bears are unable to hunt seals as long as they normally would. This would cause the polar bear population to decline because of starvation and the seal population to flourish because they are not being hunted as long. The population of shorebirds would be positively affected by global warming because with shortened winters their mating season is longer giving their young a better chance of survival.
The resources that the competing countries expect to find are gold, uranium, oil, diamonds, tin, and other ores and natural gases.
These resources are all non renewable meaning that they are only good for a one time use and then they are gone.
When an area undergoes large scale extractions it takes a big toll to the climate and the environment around it. When mining the burning of fossil fuels can give off many bad pollutants into the air causing air pollution. Also when people dump toxic wastes into the water and sewage that cause major water pollution which is also bad for the environment.
Caribou, wolves, and polar bears all live in the aritc and because of the climate change it is greatly affecting their natural living habits. For example because of the global warming the climate is getting much warmer for longer periods of time too which cause the polar bears hunting season to decrease greatly. Also with the other animals if the climate is different from the normal climate that they are accustomed to it takes a long time for animals to adapt to a new environment; therefore, causing a decrease in the population.
Nations expect to find many resources such as gold, uranium, diamonds, coal and oil.
All the resources that are collected in the Artic are non-renewable, so it will be at least one human lifetime before they come back.
Large scale mining would bring all types of pollution to the Artic. The machinery would produce exhaust polluting the air, and they would leak all types of fluids, polluting the ice and the water. The increased traffic going to and from the mines would cause some ice to melt, further shrinking the Artic.
There are many organisms that live in the Artic, such as polar bears, seals, and caribou. Global warming has shortened the polar bears hunting season which causes more and more polar bears to starve and die, and causes less polar bears to reproduce. Since the polar bear population is decreasing, the seal and caribou populations are increasing due to the fact that less and less of them are being hunted and eaten by the polar bears.
1. Our nations expect to find different resources such as gold, tin, tungsten, diamonds, nickel, copper, coal, and oil in the Artic.
2. A great majority of the listed items above are considered nonrenewable. The definition of nonrenewable is resources that can not be renewed or regenerated. Some prime examples are listed above like oil.
3. Large scale extraction of these resources can cause a shift in climate conditions in air and mining pollution as well as global warming. Water can be affected by having global warming melt some of the ice caps causing the artic to become warmer than the rest of the earth. Global warming can be caused by the mining and air pollution going around throughout the artic. The mines spit up awful chemicals as well as smog into the air. Also, since resources need to be transported, the pollution from the cars and trucks will attribute to a falling environment. The pollution will not only affect the air but the surrounding waters as well. The animals and wildlife are directly affected by this as well because when pollution begins, species numbers fall down. All of these can cause a shift in artic climate conditions.
4. Some examples of organisms that live in the artic the gray wolf, polar bears, black and brown bears, caribou, dall sheep, muskoxen, tundra swans, snow geese, and bluethroats. Like every other type of organism, all of these organisms are directly affected by a change in climate. If global warming continues at its pace it’s currently at, the animals will definitely be depleted. Polar bears will be directly affected by this, although it's in a bad way. With less ice and snow, the polar bears selection of places to live and eat will deplete and eventually become extinct. These changes will not only affect polar bears but all of the other organisms too.
1. What resources are nations expected to find in the arctic?
Nations are expecting to find resources like gold, uranium, oil, tin, coal, diamonds, and more
2. Are these resources considered renewable, perpetual, or nonrenewable?
Most of the resources are nonrenewable.
3. How could large scale extraction of these resources cause a shift in climate conditions?
The large scale extraction causes water pollution as well as air pollution, which means that these pollutants will speed up global warming and actually end up hurting the ice and making the winters much warmer and also shorter.
4. What organisms live in the artic and how would changes in climate affect their survival?
Caribou, wolves, and polar bears are examples of organisms that live in the artic and their lives and their adaptation to their surroundings are greatly affected by global warming. The polar bears have much shorter hibernation periods and they have more needs for enough food and shelter. The packs on caribou and wolves are forced to move to other places that are better suited for their living needs, but in doing this many of them are dying off.
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