Economist: SOMETIMES a small event gives you mental whiplash. An example is Singapores application for permanent observer status at the Arctic Council. This is made up of the eight states that have territory within the Arctic circle: the United States, Canada, Denmark (representing Greenland and the Faroes), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia and Sweden. But Singapore sits at the equator, as far from either pole as it is possible to be. How can it be interested?
The answer is that in 2012, as the summer ice...