The Human Condition Part I...

      So over the past few years there's been a story sort of just buzzing in the peripheral of the newspapers and on late-night documentaries etc. This story is the (hopefully not) inevitable exploitation of the Arctic regions to attain oil and other valuable substances such as materials that could be used in computers and phones and so forth. The reason it makes the news is not only due to the environmental impacts of drilling in such a fragile environment but also the increasing debate over who actually owns the Arctic, which parts belong to who and so forth. Those who are currently slicing up the oil rich pie as of now are Canada, Denmark (including Greenland and the Faroe Islands), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the USA. These eight countries make up the 'Arctic Council', deciding what land goes to who and all that sort of business. What saddens me about this story is the near desperation to gain these regions purely with a view to extract oil. People worry that this 'cold rush' as it's being called will prompt a new "arms" race, as the eight countries fight it out behind each-others' backs in order to get a slice of the pie. On one hand many officials are insisting the Arctic is and area of 'low tension' rather than dispute, whereas on the other hand Russian citizens make claims such as "We must prove that the north pole is an extension of the Russian land mass" and with Norway alarmingly increasing their purchases or military hardware.
      What I found most alarming about this story is that it entirely confirms that we humans genuinely have know idea whatsoever what is good for us, and if we do, well, then we choose to ignore it. All of the countries involved in the dispute consistently advertise themselves as 'green countries' or in other cases 'making the move towards a "greener future"' - but It's difficult to believe when they spend so much money and time on securing as many oil fields as possible, no matter the cost. What's more disturbing is their reason to begin exploiting the Arctic is that "global warming makes extraction more easy". 
      I'll give you a second to digest that...         Absolute idiots. 
      This is why I've named this post 'The Human Condition' - It's almost like we're willing to sever articles of our body as long as we continue to bleed gold. Then finally when we get to a point when we're left with no arms or legs, we realize it was probably best to keep all our limbs and do without the gold, since we can't actually wear rings when we have no fingers. That analogy was... shaky at best - but just roll with it (pun intended).

      Anyway, please leave your thoughts below, and if you have a yearning to spit in my general direction, leave those thoughts as well - I print them all out and put them next to my staler pictures of you :)

X AJ


Sidenote- So I renamed the post from 'The Human Condition...' to 'The Human Condition Part I...' because I realized there's probably a fair few more 'human conditions' that may or may not be up for discussion later on - leave your thoughts on what you think's wrong with us in the comments below.