On newsstands this week is The Economist’s special report on the Arctic. The region merits special attention because “no longer distant or inviolable,” the Arctic “has emerged, almost overnight, as a powerful symbol of the age of man.” With analyses on climate change, science, politics, natural resources, shipping, and biodiversity, the June 16-22 edition of the magazine is definitely worth picking up (or reading online). The crux of the report involves weighing the environmental damage caused by climate change against the benefits mankind will receive from new shipping routes and oil and gas resources. The magazine soberly concludes, “Arctic riches unlocked by global warming will not begin to make up for the costs of climate change.”
