Arctic Ice-Melt Cost Seen Equal to a Year of World Economic Output

Global warming has led to many extreme weather patterns around the world. It is affecting the lives of people and livestock in many countries, especially the developing ones, because the existing infrastructure is no match for the unexpected floods and droughts. This year's hot summer in the UK, mild summer in the US and the Uttarkhand floods in India are glaring examples of the effects of global warming. Besides the loss of lives, the effects of global warming bring economic hardships as well.

These problems are only going to get more intense if the Arctic ice melts at a faster rate. Large amounts of methane gas are trapped beneath the Arctic ice-caps in frozen state. When the ice melts, this methane is emitted to the atmosphere which is likely to trigger more extreme weather events. Many climatologists also believe that this methane gas is an economic time bomb waiting to explode. The economic loss from these extreme events is expected to be around $60 trillion, the equivalent of one year's global economic output.

This data published in the journal Nature comes in the light of plans by oil companies to drill oil in the Arctic. Royal Dutch Shell recently announced plans to explore the Arctic region for oil resources. Earlier, Shell stopped its operations after an oil accident off the Alaskan coast in 2012. Environmental activists argue that a clean-up is almost impossible above the Arctic Circle, which means the spills are likely to be permanent.

It is time for the governments of different countries to come together to take more concrete action against drilling in the Arctic to prevent drastic levels of climate change. Currently, the drilling efforts only focus on the benefits of tapping into large oil reserves, but they fail to the see the larger and the more important destruction that comes from it.