Cold Environments as Fragile Environments

Cold Environments as Fragile Environments

Cold environments such as Western Antarctica (including peninsula) and

Arctic tundra are extremely fragile, mainly due to the low

temperatures severely limiting vegetation growth and thus any

development will destroy the natural environment. Although this

fragility of the environment has not deterred development despite the

difficulty and cost of developing cold environments, this is due to

human’s inability to look to the long-term effects of their actions.

Arctic tundra is described as a fragile environment as plant growth of

mosses and lichens is restrict to only 2mm per year due to low

temperatures only allowing growth to occur in the 3 summer months

where temperatures reach 10 degrees centigrade. If growth of

predominantly mosses and lichens is so limited then anything that

touches the vegetation may undo thousands of years of growth, this

should in theory deter development as it destroys the natural

landscape and habitats for animals. The fragility of Alaskan tundra

has not stopped development at all, the extraction of oil has occurred

since 1974. The extraction of oil from the North Slope oilfield is

extremely dangerous and not sustainable for the Alaskan environment.

The “Exxon Valdez” sunk spilling tones of raw oil into the Gulf of

Alaska, this destroyed animals and vegetation that has not recovered

since due to the fragility of the environment. The Western world has

exploited this fragile environment, which shows that fragility of cold

environments, when there is money to be made from them, is irrelevant.

Ecologically fragile Alaskan tundra should not be disturbed, the

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... In conclusion I feel cold environments are completely fragile mainly

due to the fact the climate restricts regeneration and the slightest

disruption can have knock on effects to the whole environment. At this

moment development is taking place in fragile cold environments due to

the short-termism that plagues the capitalist world. The rich always

seem to find the economic benefits to outweigh the environmental cost

but if they looked to the long-term it is not sustainable. The

fragility of Antarctica and Canadian tundra is immense and this does

not affect development in most cases. Although Antarctica is

protected, in the future the greed of the Western world will exploit

this area to the maximum for raw materials and there will be no

pristine world left. Development is only possible at the expense of

the environment.