If You Are in a Hole: Stop Drilling

 

I have generally regarded the Norwegians (in spite of much of the country's carefully husbanded wealth being linked to North Sea oil and gas) as being environmentally savvy. It comes then as a surprise that they are apparently proposing to break the 100 year old Svalbard Treaty (protecting that area of the far North from inappropriate development) and to drill 9 new Arctic oil fields in that area (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/26/norway-plans-to-drill-for-oil-in-untouched-arctic-areas-svalbard). I suspect that they have been tempted by a) parallel US moves to expand drilling in north Alaska and b) the reduced ice in the Svalbard region. Having said that, the planet clearly does not need more oil as it will intensify climate change. The drilling is also likely to annoy Russia and other groups around that area.