Your morning coffee might soon travel through a new, icy shortcut. The melting Arctic is opening up lucrative shipping lanes and vast natural resources, sparking a geopolitical scramble among global powers.
The Arctic is warming nearly four times faster than the rest of the planet, causing its ice cover to shrink dramatically. This rapid melt is transforming a frozen frontier into a new strategic hotspot for global powers.
Since 1979, summer Arctic sea ice extent has declined by about 13% per decade.