How China is trying to capitalize on global warming: A guide

The Earth's changing climate is melting the Arctic ice sheets, starting a global rush for the goodies underneath

A NASA satellite image shows the new record low Arctic ice extent (white) and where the ice was 30 years ago (yellow line).
(Image credit: REUTERS/NASA/Goddard Scientific Visualization Studio)

First, the bad news: Sea ice in the Arctic shrank to its smallest area on record this past summer, and the much-faster-than-expected rate of seasonal disappearance of Arctic ice will likely wreak havoc on weather in the Northern Hemisphere. The good news, says Hamilton Nolan at Gawker, is that while this manmade "'global disaster' with 'terrible' implications" could destroy us all, "a lot of people could make a lot of ca$$$h" first. Indeed, the financial benefits of the vanishing ice — new access to oil, minerals, and shipping routes — aren't lost on the world's superpowers. But unlike the U.S., Russia, Canada, and parts of Europe, China doesn't own any stake in the Arctic, and is very aggressively trying to hone in on the action. Here, a look at the coming, well, cold war in the Arctic:

Who does own the Arctic?

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