by frog
It seems you can now sail around the Arctic if you should want to. The ice has melted enough that there are, for the first time in recorded history, sailing passages around both the north of Canada and Russia allowing boats to circumnavigate the ice.
Of course, for some this is a good thing:
Shipping companies are already getting ready to exploit the new routes. The Bremen-based Beluga Group says it will send the first ship through the North-east passage – cutting 4,000 nautical miles off the voyage from Germany to Japan – next year. And Canada’s Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, last week announced that all foreign ships entering the North-west passage should report to his government – a move bound to be resisted by the US, which regards it as an international waterway.
But, as No Right Turn notes, we’re not just talking about less ice hockey and polar bears, here. The flow on effects as this trend continues could well be catastrophic if we don’t act soon.
Image credit: The Telegraph
Published in Environment & Resource Management by frog on Mon, September 1st, 2008
Tags: , arctic, Frog, frogblog, green party, ice, new zealand, shipping
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
The image actually comes from the University of Bremen here. We’ll know whether there’s a new record minimum in the next few weeks, but even if there isn’t, it will be fascinating to watch the northern hemisphere weather this winter. As the ocean freezes over it loses a lot of heat to the atmosphere – and that impacts weather and weather patterns.
Can you say “rapid climate change”?
(Much more at HT, of course).
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Wrong interpretation of ‘recorded history’. The Chinese sailed around this route in the 1420’s – according to ‘How the Chinese Discovered the World’.
Was this the Mediaeval Warm Period’ ?
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And if you quote Gavin Menzies’ “work” as evidence, you’re just making yourself look foolish.
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I wonder how many ’salt of the earth, call a spade a bloody spade’ people living around the Murray Darling river are citing the Medieval Warming Period as evidence that there’s nuttin’ goin’ on around here?
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Yep, bigbluekiwi – you might want to check this out.
Menzies was a wingnutted charletan with no scientific credibilty whatsoever (and he even lied about where he was born in his first book).
This stuff’s been well and truly debunked, but unfortunately has somehow found its way into the folklore. It’s got about the same level of credibility as Seaman Staines and Roger the Cabin Boy being characters in Captain Pugwash.
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You mean they aren’t?
Bugger.
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There was a cabin boy, but his name was Tom.
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