Greens Blast Arctic 'Carve Up'

Environmentalists are slamming an agreement reached at a closed-door meeting among nations with Arctic claims as a resource free-for-all, the Guardian reports. Ministers from the US, Canada, Russia, Denmark, and Norway insist they simply agreed to abide by the law of the sea—but green groups charge that the nations are arranging who'll get to grab resources as global warming melts the ice.

"They are going to use the law of the sea to carve up the raw materials, but they are ignoring the law of common sense—these are the same fossil fuels driving climate change in the first place," said a Greenpeace spokesman. Environmentalists would like the Arctic protected by treaties banning drilling or military activity. (More Arctic stories.)