On the afternoon of August 13, 2005 a huge ice shelf broke off near the North Pole. Scientists were able to pinpoint the exact time of the collapse because of a shift on the seismic scale – the earthquake monitors detected it from 155 miles away.
Big deal? The story didn’t exactly hit the news until 2006, and it didn’t really kindle any interest until recently.
Ever since we found out that there was oil where the ice used to be, every country around the Arctic is fighting over the area.
Haven’t we learned our lesson? The ice collapses because of global warming, which is caused by burning too much oil. Then, some country takes the oil that was hidden under the ice and burns it up. Won’t it only result in another ice shelf breaking off?
But there’ll probably be some more oil under the next piece, so we shouldn’t worry too much. Maybe we should break a few sheets now and speed up the process. You never know what treasures we could find by demolishing the earth’s nonrenewable resources.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2006/dec/29/climatechange.climatechangeenvironment