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E-Letter responses to:

special/news:
Kevin Krajick
Race to Plumb the Frigid Depths
Science 2007; 315: 1525-1528 [Summary] [Full text] [PDF]
*E-Letters: Submit a response to this article

Published E-Letter responses:

[Read E-Letter] Melting Ice Cap Frees More Oil
John D. Sterman   (7 June 2007)

Melting Ice Cap Frees More Oil 7 June 2007
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John D. Sterman,
Director, System Dynamics Group
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA

Respond to this E-Letter:
Re: Melting Ice Cap Frees More Oil

Thank you for a terrific special section on the state of the Arctic (16 Mar., pp. 1513-1540). Amidst the discussions of the many positive feedbacks now accelerating climate change and global warming (the ice-albedo effect; rising greenhouse gas emissions as permafrost thaws; meltwater lubrication speeding ice-sheet breakup; and so on), I noticed one more, tucked away in the brilliantly understated caption to the picture of an offshore oil platform in the Beaufort Sea (p. 1525): “Warming temperatures should make it easier to extract oil and gas from the High Arctic.” Positive feedback indeed.

Thanks for your high sense of irony.

John Sterman

Director, System Dynamics Group, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)