How Does The Exploration Of The Arctic Region Have An Effect On Humankind & The Environment?

Exploration of the Arctic will help us discover more about what is in the Arctic such as new places and creatures. The studies that the scientists will conduct will help them to get a more reliable idea regarding the weather forecasts of the Arctic. They can also learn about the impact of the Arctic on the global climate and get a perception about the future climate. If the actions humans are taking are dangerous towards the environment and their own safety, that will help us know how to carefully manage and utilize the natural resources Arctic has to offer. In recent history, humans have started exploring the Arctic for oil as the US Geological Survey has estimated that the Arctic maybe home to Earth’s 13% undiscovered oil and 30% of the undiscovered natural gas. It is one of the world’s largest remaining sources where a lot of both gas and oil are accessible. This gives humankind another place to search for oil other than the Middle East as oil is a very important resource for every day life and the demand for oil is rapidly increasing around the world, the US Government has estimated that 30 billion barrels of oil are used per year around the world. Oil is very important for the use to generate electricity and to power cars. But, it has many environmental setbacks. There could be an oil spill which could severely harm the environment and the Arctic Wildlife. It is also said that an oil spill in the Arctic Region would be impossible to clean. In some areas of the Arctic, drilling for oil could cause toxins such as arsenic, lead and mercury to get released into the sea. Many people already know that this would cause pollution and that the environment of the Arctic is already been destroyed due to Global Warming since a very long time as it causes glaciers to melt and even small changes in the environment are enough to make serious impacts on the life of animals. Also, there is an article on the website of Telegraph which is a British News Agency and it says that the Arctic sea ice may completely melt away by 2015 because the ice is rapidly melting due to Global Warming. This will affect the habitat of animals like polar bears because if there is no ice during the summer time, the polar bears will not be able to hunt and their species might head them towards extinction. But, the ice will appear back again during the winters but that still won’t be enough for them.