Washington -US defence and science officials Tuesday warned that rapid Arctic melt raises serious commercial and strategic defence issues that must be tackled at the national and international levels. "It's past time" to face the economic and geopolitical "consequences of global climate change," said Rear Admiral Timothy McGee, commander of the US Navy's meteorology and oceanography command.
He was speaking to reporters before the opening of a conference on the "impact of an ice-diminishing Arctic."
McGee warned that the United States must secure its interests in the Arctic region not only for increasing commercial ship traffic, as passageways melt through, but also to protect the ecological zone of the northern ice regions.
He compared the vast unexplored regions of the Arctic to the unexplored Middle East of 100 years ago, when "armies had never ventured" into the region.
"They didn't get it right," he said. "This time (with the Arctic), we have to get it right," he said.
