Ceasefire on Melting Ice

At an Arctic 'peace summit,' rival generals, ministers, and diplomats in immaculate parkas hunch over a giant map laid directly across a melting ice floe, using rulers and pens to divide future shipping routes, naval patrol zones, and oil-drilling blocks. Their posture is solemn and cooperative, as if conducting delicate peace talks, but the floe beneath them is splitting into jagged cracks and shrinking into black water. Their folding chairs, flag stands, and briefcases are sliding toward the edge, one aide calmly repositioning a coffee cup as the whole platform tilts. In the background, distant smokestacks and tankers fade into the polar haze, reinforcing that the very crisis creating these 'opportunities' is still being fueled.