Reuters
A helicopter from the Swedish icebreaker Oden lands on an ice floe to pick up crew members in the Canadian Arctic, July 25, 2019
- The Arctic is losing ice, and it may have its first ice-free summer in a few decades.
- A more accessible Arctic presents opportunities for countries and industry, but the US and its partners may not be the ones to benefit.
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The Arctic Ocean is projected to have its first ice-free summer by 2050.
While most would justifiably consider this a tragic consequence of climate change, some countries and industries stand to benefit from the new trade routes and resources a melting Arctic would unlock.
The result is a new theater of competition that promises to change the geopolitical landscape as much as the environmental one.
So who wins and who loses from a melting Arctic?