Green Options

New Scientist reports a controversial study that melting ice caps could actually weaken the greenhouse effect. Stanford University scientists studied satellite data from 1998 to 2007 to evaluate changes in sea surface temperatures and quantities of sea ice and phytoplankton (increased phytoplankton activity removes atmospheric carbon). What they found is startling— phytoplankton grew more in areas where ice was disappearing.

The Arctic is heating up in more than one way, as we saw last week when Russia planted its flag on the seafloor below in an apparent move to establish a claim to the ample oil and gas reserves buried beneath.

What’s disastrous for polar bears and Inuit subsistence hunters is emerging as a potentially huge — and destabilizing — fossil-fuel rush for the nations bordering the Arctic Ocean as the polar ice melts.

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