The melting of the Arctic will bring peril—and opportunity

From The Economist

THE NORTH POLE has captivated people for millennia. Long before anyone got there, it existed vividly in the imagination as a cornucopia of treasures, a dark den for sea monsters or an open ocean linking opposite points of the world. Today the Arctic is still a site of peril and promise. A new race to the North Pole is under way, as politicians dream of accessing mineral wealth buried in the permafrost and opening new trade routes through the Arctic.

This is possible only because the planet is heating up. Global warming is happening faster at the top of the world than anywhere else. This winter the maximum extent of Arctic sea ice was the smallest it has been on record. As the ice cap melts, rising seas could destroy coastal cities and swallow low-lying islands. Three very different books shed a chilling light on what is at stake for the region—and the world.