{"id":55376,"date":"2020-10-19T06:43:21","date_gmt":"2020-10-19T11:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=55376"},"modified":"2020-10-19T06:43:21","modified_gmt":"2020-10-19T11:43:21","slug":"big-oils-answer-to-melting-arctic-cooling-the-ground-so-it-can-keep-drilling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=55376","title":{"rendered":"Big Oil’s answer to melting Arctic: cooling the ground so it can keep drilling"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Big Oil’s answer to melting Arctic: cooling the ground so it can keep drilling<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Technology is keeping patches of Alaska permafrost frozen to preserve energy infrastructure even as indigenous residents\u2019 world is transformed by the climate crisis<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"An<\/picture><\/div>
\u00a0<\/span>An oil pipeline stretches across the landscape outside Prudhoe Bay in North Slope borough, Alaska. Photograph: Bonnie Jo Mount\/The Washington Post via Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/header>\n
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The oil company ConocoPhillips had a problem.<\/p>\n

It wanted to pump 160,000 more barrels of oil each day from a new project on Alaska\u2019s North Slope. But the fossil fuels it and others produce are leading to global heating, and the\u00a0Arctic<\/a>\u00a0is melting. The firm\u2019s drilling infrastructure could be at risk atop thawing and unstable permafrost.<\/p>\n

A recent\u00a0environmental review of the project describes the company\u2019s solution:<\/a>\u00a0cooling devices that will chill the ground beneath its structures, insulating them from the effects of the climate crisis.<\/p>\n

The oil development that is fueling climate change continues to expand in the far north, with companies moving into new areas even as they are paying for special measures to protect equipment from the dangers of thawing permafrost and increasing rainfall \u2013 both expected outcomes as Arctic temperatures rise three times as fast\u00a0<\/strong>as those elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Countries from\u00a0Norway<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0Russia<\/a>\u00a0are advancing new Arctic oil developments. But under Donald Trump\u2019s administration, Alaska has emerged as a hotbed of Arctic oil extraction, with big projects moving forward and millions of acres proposed to be opened to leasing.<\/p>\n

The administration recently finalized its plan to open a piece of the Arctic national wildlife refuge to the oil industry. And drilling is expanding at an Indiana-sized region next door: the National Petroleum Reserve in\u00a0Alaska<\/a>, which, despite its name, also contains treasured subsistence areas for locals.<\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Big Oil’s answer to melting Arctic: cooling the ground so it can keep drilling Technology is keeping patches of Alaska permafrost frozen to preserve energy infrastructure even as indigenous residents\u2019 world is transformed by the climate crisis \u00a0An oil pipeline stretches across the landscape outside Prudhoe Bay in North Slope borough, Alaska. Photograph: Bonnie Jo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[2037,1018,2688,141,6917],"class_list":["post-55376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-environment","tag-alaska","tag-arctic","tag-big-oil","tag-climate-change","tag-the-guardian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55376"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55377,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55376\/revisions\/55377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}