How will the melting Arctic regions become a battleground for resource collections by companies wishing to control the flow of profit? A major struggle for the developing world is to maintain the amount of natural resources to produce power and meet consumer demands. The abundance of available resource in certain areas are often over-mined, leading companies to search all over the globe to locate more of that resource. In the idea of climate change, warmer temperatures affect the globe in the different ways. In particular, the Arctic region holds large amounts of minerals and natural resource that has not been touched due to harsh environments to sift through, and the climate change has caused much of the thick ice and permafrost to diminish allowing the minerals to be excavated. Due to lack of prior protection of the Arctic, newly thawed regions have allowed companies to use the available resources for profit. New laws protecting the Arctic must be made for U.S. military to respond to threats in the area, as well as environmental protection for wildlife from effects of exploited resources.

The Arctic Ocean expands across a vast array of continents and is mostly covered in snow and ice. The area proves to be a harsh environment for most species to inhabit, but nonetheless holds plentiful amounts of life of its own, either in the ice covered ocean of marine life or above for few mammals that are suited for life there. These species adapted to the severe temperatures and have adjusted their lifestyles to suit their needs. Studies have shown that over the last decades, less of Arctic ice is constant each season. Thawing has made a notable impact in southern regions, such as much of central Alaska, where permafrost temperatures "are just below freezing point and is expected to thaw by 2020"(Gillis). This regional difference results in temperatures much lower that freezing point in northern Alaska. By looking at the rising temperatures, the popularity of the Arctic can be analyzed from human contact on the environment. With human contact, climate change affects the Arctic more directly as companies in search on natural resources in the region, releasing greenhouse gases. 

    In spreading of greenhouse gases, methane and carbon dioxide gas affects the region significantly. With methane, bacteria consumes organic material in the lower levels of the water where oxygen is absent. The bacteria are able to reach this material due to rising temperatures and the methane created will bubble under the surface of the ice layer. Acknowledging these rising temperatures, the methane will soon flow into the atmosphere once the ice melts, only further inducing climate change in the region. This same effect is similar with carbon dioxide where bacteria in search for oxygen will release the gas into the atmosphere from the ice. With an increase in temperatures, the resulting effect will cause a loop where bacteria will decompose material quicker and release carbon dioxide, which will speed global warming significantly (Gillis).

    Human contact on the area has significantly altered much of how the Arctic will be ever-changing. For much of the centuries, the Arctic region was too difficult to mine for resources. Unfortunately, with the loop of changing patterns in temperatures and decreasing of permafrost and sea ice, companies are now capable of obtaining the crucial minerals, such as phosphate, bauxite, iron ore, copper, and nickel, from the area that have been depleted from other sources around the globe. Russian companies have already been mining resources to a percentage on a global scale. The hunt for petroleum creates a significant impact on the region as well. The opening in ice breakage has allowed oil to be extracted in the upper seventy percent margin being exported across the nations.

    These coinciding effects of on the Arctic significantly affect each other as they affect the Arctic. This cycle is created at a base level of organic material being decomposed by bacteria in the water, and although it would not cause much gas to be released on its own, further rising temperatures and human interaction in the area fuels the cycle. As the temperatures rise from the climate change the decomposition rate of organic material of bacteria will occur in a quicker rate, leading to permafrost to melt in a quicker time than with expected rates for the season. With the permafrost and ice gone, human interaction increases as well. The natural resources humans use in everyday life are then open for mining since a path has now been made available. Since the Arctic is a resource rich region, more companies from other nations will also search the area in search of these resources. With oil drilling and ore mining, accidents are bound to occur, so if any accident does happen, spills will cause damage to the environment and effect the species of life who inhabit the Arctic region. The cause-and-effect relationship of these factors will fuel itself until the Arctic region has lost its ability to stay frozen due to climate change and will be forever changed.

    As a basis for argument, the Ocean Scientists’ video supports a central claim that the Arctic is induced to a repeating cycle as climate change effects the region’s ice content through the years. The speaker addresses instances where the decline in the “multiyear ice” that accumulates in the winter season and melts within the summer. The decline is represented over a few years from 2003 to 2008, where there is a significant decline in the multiyear ice that accumulates each year. With less amounts of ice, higher sea levels are then affecting the globe rather than just the Arctic Ocean. This video creates the claim that the Arctic is in a cycle of decline within the capable management of a single organization, such as the IPCC, is monitoring and creating focus of concern for the other environmental protection agencies around the world. (Ocean Scientists).

    Oil leases and pollution in the area cause damage to the environment. 