Are there any positives?

In the UK, we’re already enjoying shorter winters and warmer average temperatures as a result of climate change, and tourism and agriculture could benefit from the rising temperatures in the short term. In the Arctic, the melting ice sheet is likely to open up the Northwest Passage (between Canada and the North Pole) within a couple of decades, dramatically shortening shipping times from Asia to Europe. It is also going to enable access to the vast reserves of oil and gas believed to lie under the Arctic seabed; international squabbling over their ownership has already started, with Russia sending a mini-submarine to plant a flag on the seabed beneath the North Pole in August 2007. Whoever gets their hands on the oil and gas, it will all get burnt, warming up the atmosphere that little bit more.

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