The Barents Sea: Open for Business

Norway and Russia have finally settled on a dividing line in the Barents Sea. Read my deadline story in The New York Times here. Norway's prime minister and Russia's president announced today that they will divide, roughly in half, a vast economic zone that has been under dispute the past 40 years. That opens the way for more offshore oil and gas production -- the same activity that most scientists say has caused the Arctic ice cap to recede from the Barents Sea in the first place, making it attractive as a business opportunity, though not a particularly green one.