Melting Greenland could yield 50 billion barrels of oil

Sometimes you read the newspaper and all you can do is shake your head. In an article that begins with a future scenario of Greenlanders putting away their dog sleds and transforming from reindeer hunters to oil platform workers, The Age offers up an article that informs us of one of the silver linings of global warming: 50 billion more barrels of oil. Excuse me while I light a cigar.

Apparently Greenland is practically oozing oil but there has always been this pesky thick layer of ice standing between it and the humans wanting to exploit this "resource." Now, thanks to rising temperatures from higher CO₂ levels, this black gold bonanza will soon be within the reach of oil companies. In fact, Chevron, Exxon Mobil and Husky Energy have already been awarded exploration licenses and are busy rubbing their grubby hands studying seismic data to find the best drilling sites. While it goes on to discuss the huge headache this drilling will probably cause for Greenland-Danish relations, The Age mentions nothing about the consequences of the higher CO₂ levels burning this black stuff will cause.

[Source: The Age]