Mike Pompeo surprised everyone in a speech at an international conference on the Arctic region, stating that it is at the “forefront of opportunity and abundance”
Contrary to the warnings made by various organizations about the catastrophic effects that climate change is producing in the Arctic region, the US Secretary of State sees above all new opportunities. For Mike Pompeo, that region is “at the forefront of opportunity and abundance” thanks to reduced sea ice and the natural resources it has.
According to Pompeo, in a speech on Monday in Finland, during a meeting of the ministerial council of the Arctic countries, which includes the US, the reduction of sea ice makes the region “an arena of global power and competition” “due to new avenues of passage opening new trade routes.
For example, reducing ice will reduce travel between Asia and the West to 20 days. “The Arctic sea lanes could become the Suez and Panama Canal of the 21st Century,” he said, quoted by CNN.
Pompeo’s political discourse on the Arctic focused on the threats posed by Russia and China to the region. The US Secretary of State stated that the United States will compete for influence in the Arctic and counter any attempt by the other two powers to dominate this strategic location.
According to the Washington Post, China has invested about 80 billion euros in the Arctic since 2012. The US secretary of state has shown distrust of the intentions of the Asian giant’s investment because of the country’s “predatory activities” in other regions. “Do we want the Arctic Ocean to become a new South China Sea, full of militarization and territorial claims?” he asked the diplomats present.
Pompeo also warned of Russia’s intentions in the Arctic as the country began a major military expansion campaign. “We know that Russian territorial ambitions can become violent,” he said, pointing to the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
The Secretary of State listed during his speech some of the region’s natural resources as: “13% of the world’s undiscovered oil, 30% undiscovered gas, an abundance of uranium, rare earth minerals, gold, abundance of fishing, diamonds and millions of square kilometers of unexplored resources. ”
DEFROST TO RECORD LEVELS
Despite this strategic interest in the region, the US Global Change Research Program points to the loss of sea ice as a negative. The loss increases the risk of erosion along the coasts and alters the presence of marine species in certain areas, which may affect trade in fish and consequently the economies of some coastal cities.
The changing habitat of the animals may prove dangerous, for example, the 52 polar bears that invaded a Russian village and terrorized the inhabitants for months. The animals, due to the increasing melting of the Arctic and the loss of habitat, saw the need to get closer to the population to look for food.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported in March 2019 that “since satellite measurements began in the late 1970s, the extent of Arctic ice has declined in every month and virtually all regions, with the exception of the Sea of Bering during the winter “.
Also a report from the National Data Center on Snow and Ice pointed out a new record level of sea ice loss. The figures show that last April there were 89,000 square miles less than in April 2018. The study also points out that of all Arctic ice only 1.2% is over four years old.
POMPEO SAYS US IS LRADER IN ENVIROMENTAL ACTION.
The US secretary of state commended the American view on the struggle for the environment and said that Trump is “committed to achieving resources in environmentally responsible ways.” The speech was made on the same day that a UN report warned that one million species were at risk of extinction due to human action, including climate change.
For Pompeo, America is the world leader in caring for the environment. “The United States is achieving reductions in the American way: through scientific work, through technology, through the building of secure energy infrastructures and through our economic growth, and we are doing this so as not to stifle development with costly regulations that they only create more risks to the environment”.
When asked about climate change, something he chose not to address in his speech, the Secretary of State said that his view and President Trump’s “put all the emphasis on results.”
SOURCE BY:wwww,dn.pt