Two major Arctic Ocean shipping routes open simultaneously as ice recedes

Thursday, September 1st 2011 - 05:29 UTC

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Two major Arctic Ocean shipping routes have opened simultaneously for only the second time since satellite observation began in the 1970s, researchers say. Read full article

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DennisA
The NW passage was navigated by Amundsen in 1906, the Northern sea route has been open many times. The start of the satellite period in 1979 followed an extreme period of cold in the sixties and ice had extended much further south. It is quite natural for the cycle to have changed, but means very little in terms of long term climate. Just imagine if we had had the current scale of hysterical media reporting in the 30's when it was warmer in the Arctic than today.
Sep 01st, 2011 - 05:46 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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GeoffWard2
What it might do, is to re-route much of marine trade north of the continents rather than causing them to traverse the southern oceans to get back to the northern hemisphere.

I can imagine that this would cause some decline in southern hemisphere economies.
B.A. Montivideo, Santos, Cape Town, . . .

Nothing but supposition, but just a thought.
Sep 04th, 2011 - 12:55 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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Amrynel
Yes, the passage was navigated in 1906, and many times since then. However, there is a slight difference between (1) hardy explorers picking their way across ice-strewn seas in shallow-draft boats, and (2) pampered tourists aboard deep-draft cruise liners with barely an iceberg in sight. It will be “interesting times” if this persists.
Sep 05th, 2011 - 11:51 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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GeoffWard2
The Northern seasonal ice-pack will be a problem for double-skinned oil and LNG tankers for some years until the positive feedbacks driving polar ice-melt clear the Arctic Ocean perifery/Barents Sea/etc sufficiently. This should not take too long as the process accelerates.

Personally, I wouldn't take a cruise ship beyond Svalbard - especially if I was there to see the Arctic's polar bears
- or N. Canada/Greenland/Bering Sea for our newly-warm-and-pink walrusses.
Cruise ships visiting the Arctic to see the narwal will continue to have ice-pack problems as they retire ever more northwards.
Sep 06th, 2011 - 02:24 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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