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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It?
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From: Kenneth E. Phillipps3/12/2014 10:43:13 AM
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Global warming helps Russia achieve superpower status.



According to a 2011 report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, two-thirds of Russia’s land mass is currently buried under permafrost. Underneath that frost lie vast stores of nickel, cobalt, copper and diamonds --not to mention oil and natural gas.

Melting of permafrost will further open up previously marginal or even unworkable lands to agriculture. Melting Arctic ice will create new shipping routes along Russia’s northern coast and will open up previously inaccessible oil and gas reserves. Russia’s warming has already helped the country hit record harvests of rice, corn and sunflower seeds in recent years. Continued warming could conceivably allow the country to become the world’s bread basket -- and control the planet’s food supply.

Russia is, of course, fully aware of these possible rosy global warming scenarios. Putin has said that "two or three degrees" of climate change could be good for Russia, in that it would reduce heating costs and increase crop yields.

Of course Russia will face harsh consequences from global warming as well. Wildfires and drought have hit the country hard in recent years -- trends that will likely only worsen as the planet continues to heat up. But there isn’t a country in the world that isn’t poised to face similar problems -- the United States among them. The only difference is, we don’t have half-a-continent’s worth of untouched natural resources buried under permafrost to compensate for the deleterious consequences of climate change.

So for all you out there blasé about climate change, you may want to take a long hard look at your position -- because it doesn’t take that much effort to see a post-global warming Russia emerging as an unchecked superpower.

America has done pretty well for itself under the current global climate. Doesn’t it make sense to do everything we can to preserve that trove of good fortune?

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-climate-change-russia-super-power-20140311,0,5497942.story#ixzz2vl9pnDBe
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