The Arctic holds a fifth of all the world’s remaining undiscovered oil – as much as 90 billion barrels. This news came out of the United States Geological Survey on Wednesday (press release) and has been covered extensively.

The report has led some to say that now we know how much oil is down there – a non-trivial matter to work out apparently – the Arctic is going to be tapped sooner than anyone may have thought (Canada’s Globe and Mail).

With the Arctic becoming ‘the new Houston’ (Independent) some pundits are predicting the end of the ‘peak oil’ crisis. They are, as it happens, wrong. If oil is peaking, 90 billion barrels here or there doesn’t make a great deal of difference — a few years worth, eked out over a few decades.

The irony of fossil-fuel-exacerbated global warming melting the arctic enough to make it possible to go and drill for yet more of our favourite climate-endangering black sticky stuff is not lost on (Slate)

Image: NASA/JPL/ASF