I dont think many powers are going to respect many environmental restrictions in the coming years when it comes to important minerals for their industries...it probably may hugely depend on who will be at the white house next year,,,, but even China is not that committed to many international agreements and if it sees the US not respecting many of the restrictions it will be emboldened as well ... The same is true to Russia and many rising economies like India ,Brazil etc. Particularly within the next five to ten years I foresee a scramble for the minerals of Antarctica,,,whatever treaty there has been concerning that continent, the various powers I mentioned wont be deterred anymore ,,,some countries have some claims on the peripheries of the continent and there were some land disputes as well...the well known one being between Chile and UK,,The dispute at one point was so hot that the Chileans flew some pregnant women to the continent to bear babies there and hence to claim there are Chilean "citizens" of the continent already


...in any case many powers like Russia and China probably may not have been represented in the initial low scale land grab or dispute at the periphery of the continent..,hence they (as well as the USA) may assert thier power by moving and claiming deeper territories despite the international treaties to only use the areas for scientific studies etc... the increasing melting of ice showing mineral rich bare lands is making this possibility very real by the day. Hence this decade may see a new fight and rush for minerals in the once frozen Antarctica...gone would be the days when only scientific bases at the periphery were allowed. I once applied to a job in one of the bases as they advertise different kinds of jobs from time to time ranging from a simple electrician and a cook to an atmospheric scientist ,,,I was thinking no one would apply to go there .But to my dismay I found out that actually the jobs are very much contested. They may be financially rewarding as there are arrangements to take care of all the accommodation needs of the employees and basically one's salary is just saved in a bank as there is no way to spend it there
But the marines and the navy of the ambitious big nations may soon conquer that icy land...
TT