Arctic Sea Ice Day: How climate change is melting sea ice and threatening peace in the Arctic.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/1521525

High above the Arctic a US spy plane is taking on fuel. The pilot of the tanker aircraft, Captain Vince Pellegri, flies as steadily as possible so that the spy plane behind him can nudge up safely to his refuelling pipe.

A few years ago Captain Pellegri would have been refuelling similar spy planes over Afghanistan and Iraq, as part of the United States 351st Air Refuelling Squadron. But below him today is one of the largest unpopulated areas on the planet.

For although there are no tanks or infantry battalions marching across the shrinking Arctic ice, this is one of the most strategically fragile and heavily militarised regions on the planet. Climate change is largely responsible.