"Tundra regions are ecologically fragile but economically important." Examine this statement critically.

Slow recovery

Lichens grow a few millimetres a year, so tracks and spills scar the ground for decades, and simple food webs magnify any species loss.

Carbon vault

Permafrost stores about twice the atmosphere's carbon, and thaw turns it into a source, as the loop shows.

Unstable ground

Thaw-weakened supports were blamed for the 17,500-tonne Norilsk diesel spill in 2020.

Energy reserves

The USGS (2008) put about 13% of the world's undiscovered oil and 30% of its gas in the Arctic, tapped by Yamal LNG and Prudhoe Bay.

Minerals and routes

Norilsk's nickel, Greenland's rare earths and the shorter Northern Sea Route draw powers including India, which has an Arctic Policy (2022).

Living economies

Sami and Nenets reindeer herding and Barents Sea fisheries sustain communities without degrading the land.

The critical caveat

Extraction is costly and risky, and Greenland banned uranium mining in 2021, so fragility limits the economic case.