Earlier this month when scientists announced arctic sea ice had reached the lowest extent ever, many read the phenomenon as bad news. But for some, there’s a silver lining in a less icy arctic.

While the melt could mean even warmer climes in the future, it also means the Arctic—and its oil, gas, minerals, rare earth metals, and trade routes—is becoming more accessible, according to an article in the Washington Post. And that means business.

In the last few years, there has been increasing international interest in the Arctic, and in Greenland in particular. The receding of ice in that country has made it easier to get at its wealth of natural resources—and its government is being courted as never before, according to the New York Times.

“We are treated so differently than just a few years ago,” Greenland Vice Premier Jens B. Frederiksen told the Times. “We are aware that is because we now have something to offer, not because they’ve suddenly discovered that Inuit are nice people.”

Of Greenland’s new suitors, Asian countries such as South Korea, Japan, and—perhaps most notably—China, are leading the race. This month, the South Korean-owned Korean Resources Corporation signed agreements to work on joint mining operations with Greenland-based NunaMinerals. Chinese companies have also been financing mining in Greenland for some time, according to the Times.

“There is already a sense of competition in the Arctic, and they think they can have first advantage,” Jingjing Su, a lawyer for a Copenhagen firm that represents many of the Chinese companies, told the Times.

While natural resources might be ripe for plundering, perhaps even more important to the Chinese is access to a trade route known as the NSR, or North Sea Route. A dearth of sea ice means that the route—which would shave about 4,000 miles off the typical Hamburg-Shanghai voyage—would become navigable for a short period each year, according to the Economist.

The importance of the trade route and other interests have led China and eight other countries to petition for spots on the five-country Arctic Council, which has a significant say in shipping and other key decisions. The “observer status” sought by the countries would allow them to voice their opinion but not have a vote, according to the Times.

Even if China and others do get a seat at the table, the Economist points out, “the passage of the NSR is not a straightforward boon, either. Even as it opens up for shipping, it will remain a hazardous passage. Russia can be expected to exact a steep price in transit fees and pilotage.”

Indeed, for most of the world, the boons are even less straightforward. Without the sunlight-reflecting quality of the ice, both temperatures and sea levels could rise globally. And the speed at which it’s happening is alarming, say scientists like Rutgers University’s Jennifer A. Francis, who studies the effect of sea ice on weather patterns.

“It’s hard even for people like me to believe, to see that climate change is actually doing what our worst fears dictated,” she told the New York Times in August. “It’s starting to give me chills, to tell you the truth.”