Melting ice has opened up the fabled Northwest Passage, which runs through an archipelago of islands in northern Canada.
But as melting polar ice has opened up the region to shipping, fishing, oil, gas and mineral extraction and even tourism countries as far away as Singapore are claiming a stake in its ice caps.
Speaking at a conference, he said, "Everybody looks at the negative effects of global warming, but with the ice melting, the Northern Passage has opened up.
That's because the melting of sea ice has opened a region long protected by its harsh environment.
Since the melting of Arctic ice has opened the region to valuable shipping and resource extraction, neither of the Arctic powers is willing to relinquish the island to the other.
"Everybody looks at the negative effects of global warming, but with the ice melting, the Northern Passage has opened up," LePage said at a transportation conference Thursday morning, according to the Bangor Daily News.
But the rapid melting of the Arctic ice has opened up a new oil frontier which companies such as BP and Shell are positioning themselves to exploit.
New direct metal fabrication technologies such as Electron Beam Melting (EBM) have opened up new possibilities.
As melting ice caps have opened up prospects that were once considered too harsh to explore, a race has begun among Arctic nations, including the United States, Russia, and Canada, for control of these resources.
It seems as if the Fed and Treasury have opened up a fire hose of liquidity to try to melt the frozen credit markets.
