Reserves 10 times the North Sea’s output raise fears over drilling in protected region
Russia has found vast oil and gas reserves in the Antarctic, much of it in areas claimed by the UK.
The surveys are a prelude to bringing in drilling rigs to exploit the pristine region for fossil fuels, MPs have warned.
Reserves totalling 511bn barrels of oil – about 10 times the North Sea’s entire 50-year output – have been reported to Moscow by Russian research ships, according to evidence given to the Commons Environment Audit Committee (EAC) last week.
It follows a series of surveys by the Alexander Karpinsky vessel, operated by Rosgeo – the Russian agency charged with finding mineral reserves for commercial exploitation.
Antarctica is meant to be protected by the 1959 Antarctic Treaty that bans all mineral or oil developments. The UK’s interests are overseen by the Foreign Office – but it has been accused of ignoring the emerging crisis.
Why are people doing resource exploration in protected areas? >___>
Capitalism demands it
Is Russia capitalist?
You have to understand “capitalist” in this case means “I’m in high school and someone looks greedy”.
Like, there’s nuance and then there’s “everyone who is not an anarcho-socialist-utopian-solar-punk-revolutionary is a capitalist”.
And I say this totally not defending capitalism, I’m just smart enough to see a difference between “fisher-price my first socialism” vs reality…
Having a greedy oligarchy isn’t capitalism, it can be just as bad if not worse but the idea things being different is lost on these folks… if you are going to argue that Putin taking everything for himself is just Russia being “capitalist” then you are literally telling the world “I can see lots of trees, but no forest…”
The Soviet Union was – claimed to be – communist. That is not the case for Russia.
Much like China now has incorporated many capitalist systems.
No communist in America is a communist. They all want to be communist (wannabe communist, like wannabe badasses), but they are not. You are what you eat.
If we were to burn another 500 billion barrels of oil, it would be game over for the planet.
Screw the planet, just think of all the profit. ~ Oil exes probably
Why do they care? They want solar panels and wind turbines. Fossil fuels are killing people.
You clearly have Russia confused with somebody else. Russia has some of the biggest natural gas operations on earth, and they’re the largest exporter of oil.
Why do “they”, the British, care?
