Northern Sea Route Through Arctic Becomes a Reality 373
Hugh Pickens writes "Andrew Revkin writes in the NY Times that since 1553, when Sir Hugh Willoughby led an expedition north in search of a sea passage over Russia to the Far East, mariners have dreamed of a Northern Sea Route through Russia's Arctic ocean that could cut thousands of miles compared with alternate routes. A voyage between Hamburg and Yokohama is only 6,600 nm. via the Northern Sea Route — less than 60% of the 11,400 nm. Suez route. Now in part because of warming and the retreat and thinning of Arctic sea ice in summer, this northern sea route is becoming a reality with the 12,700-ton 'Beluga Fraternity,' designed for a mix of ice and open seas, poised to make what appears to be the first such trip. The German ship picked up equipment in Ulsan, South Korea, on July 23 and arrived in Vladivostok on the 25th with a final destination at the docks in Novyy Port, a Siberian outpost. After that, if conditions permit, it will head to Antwerp or Rotterdam, marking what company officials say would be the first time a vessel has crossed from Asia to Europe through the Arctic on a commercial passage."
And they said that GW would be a bad thing (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:but but but.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The perfect way to minimize our carbon footprin (Score:5, Insightful)
Imagine the benefits to the environment if we could just figure out a way to melt the ice caps completely. Our greenhouse emissions would plummet!
Of course they would. Melt the ice caps, flood the most populated areas of the planet, and bingo - mankind's greenhouse gas emissions drop dramatically!
Hope they pack a few rifles. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Just remember who's Artic it is (Score:5, Insightful)
Why bring up the Americans? Isn't this a German company?
Re:but but but.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Eh, no.
The questions are how much is man made, what are the consequences for our long and short term survival prospects and what actions to take if these consequences are unacceptable.
Re:Just remember who's Artic it is (Score:4, Insightful)
The Artic Archipeligo is Canada's. Ask permission first. Despite what the American government may think, there is no international waterway through the Artic Archipeligo.
The Canadian claim doesn't extend all the way to the Northern coast of Siberia and Russia, does it? TFA specifically says they're not using the "Northwest Passage". And WTF would the US Government care about a territorial dispute involving Germany, Russia and Canada anyway? Especially since there's no mention in TFA (or TFB) about Canada at all.
Why Russians love Global Warming (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Just remember who's Artic it is (Score:4, Insightful)
The Artic Archipeligo is Canada's. Ask permission first. Despite what the American government may think, there is no international waterway through the Artic Archipeligo.
This has nothing to do with US imperialism, despite your attempt to make it sound bad. The article merely mentions the possibility of passage through Canadian waters. If the ice melts and there is some benefit to its economy, Canada will work something out with its neighbors to allow access.
Regardless, passage through Canadian waters wasn't the main focus of the article...
Re:The perfect way to minimize our carbon footprin (Score:5, Insightful)
Imagine the benefits to the environment if we could just figure out a way to melt the ice caps completely. Our greenhouse emissions would plummet!
Of course they would. Melt the ice caps, flood the most populated areas of the planet, and bingo - mankind's greenhouse gas emissions drop dramatically!
The arctic ice cap has ALREADY displaced the amount of water it currently contains. Melting it would have no additional effect on sea level. I, for one, welcome the removal of that troublesome ice sheet up north. For too long, the Suez and Panama Canals have stifled global competition. Just think of the fuel savings!
Re:but but but.. (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm personally sick of being told how $POINTLESS_MEASURE will solve GW at either a cost of billions or by making everyone's lives worse, with unproven potential benefit, but the real solutions are being left to wither (at least in the UK).
Banning plastic carrier bags, putting up a few wind turbines or raising the tax on X won't do anything. If AGW was really concerning them they would just build a load of nuclear power capacity (or at least a big tidal barrage) and be done with it. At the moment all they can do is hope that people will start to 'save power' (they won't) and desperately try to come up with ways to tax electric/alternative cars to hell, removing any cost advantage they might ever have over petrol/gas power (top tip: fuel currently costs $6.31/USGal in the UK, the gov't is trying to apply similar levels of taxation to electric/hydrogen/whatever cars in the future using GPS-based 'Road Pricing')
Re:but but but.. (Score:2, Insightful)
That panel of "scientists" is all about pushing the global conspiracy of man-made global warming, instead of acknowledging the solar activity cycle that has already been shown to follow the ups and downs of Earth's temp. Global Warming is a socialist conspiracy to thwart industry and send us back into the dark ages.
Mars is suffering global warming, too. Gee...I wonder why? And Pluto. Seems every planet in the Sol System is warming up. What is the one thing they all have in common? Al Gore invented them. No, wait, could it be the solar activity cycle?
Re:The perfect way to minimize our carbon footprin (Score:5, Insightful)
The arctic ice cap has ALREADY displaced the amount of water it currently contains. Melting it would have no additional effect on sea level. I, for one, welcome the removal of that troublesome ice sheet up north. For too long, the Suez and Panama Canals have stifled global competition. Just think of the fuel savings!
Good thing we don't have to worry about all of that ice covering Greenland and the Antarctic displacing ocean water ... oh. Wait a minute.
Re:The perfect way to minimize our carbon footprin (Score:3, Insightful)
The OP of the message I replied to made no reference to the ice sheets on land.
It also didn't exclude the ice caps on land. It just said "ice caps", which I would imagine includes both kinds.
Re:The perfect way to minimize our carbon footprin (Score:4, Insightful)
The OP of the message I replied to made no reference to the ice sheets on land.
Next time, when you think you are about to be witty. Stop. Because you aren't.
Which part of "ice caps" confused you into thinking the OP was only talking about the Arctic?
Re:but but but.. (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:And they said that GW would be a bad thing (Score:1, Insightful)
As long as our global economy is stimulated, I don't see any issue with destroying our habitat...
All joking aside, this is pretty much the attitude in the developing world. Nothing but rhetoric out of China, Russia, India, etc. We had better hope global warming is a scam, because any cutbacks in the west will be offset by production increases in the developing world. There is ZERO possibility that carbon emissions will be reduced, no matter how many clever new taxes are introduced and no matter how many jobs are lost.
The developing world sees "climate change" as a nifty opportunity to profit at the expense of the US and Europe; they do not intend to miss out on the opportunity of a lifetime.
Re:Why Russians love Global Warming (Score:3, Insightful)
Slightly warmer MIGHT be okay, but it's a slippery slope and there's currently no end in sight to the warming. Not good.
No, it's not. First, the earth has been warmer than even the most dire GW predictions. Next, the hockey stick model has been disproved repeatedly. Finally, the earth has seen GW several times before. Every time the earth has seen an ice age, it has ended due to GW. Never has any of the earth's warming cycles ended in a "slippery slope" scenario or caused some sort of runaway warming loop.
The fact is that earth has heated and cooled all on its own for billions of years. For that matter, the earth is always either heating or cooling. Never has climate been a constant. Currently, it's heating. If it were cooling, we would be trying to find a reason why man is causing the earth to cool. We'd probably blame smog, chem trails or some other man made phenomenon and completely disregard the fact that these things happen without our help.
Positive aspects? (Score:1, Insightful)
I wonder how many other positive aspects of global warming there are? I realize the warming is the scare, but has there been much examination into benefits of global warming?
Re:And they said that GW would be a bad thing (Score:2, Insightful)
Not to stir the pot, but EVERYBODY does that, not just industrialists. Do you drive a car? Do you use a bus? Cab? You're polluting. Putting your own selfish interests above the environment, aren't you? Now I know that's hyperbole, but my point is EVERYONE justifies their own actions as being necessary. Al Gore is the poster boy for the AGW crowd and yet he makes my energy consumption pale in comparison. I'm sure he justifies his consumption because he needs to travel to spread the word about the coming apocalypse, but in the end he is simplying justifying his lifestyle and he won't change his life if it inconveniences him at all.
The whole thing is just hypocrisy all over the place. On every side. I don't believe anyone any more because they are all lying. Now I am going to go light my coal furnace by burning some plastic plates and I would like some quiet for my afternoon nap.
Re:And they said that GW would be a bad thing (Score:5, Insightful)
This isn't news.
This isn't the first time a northern route was used.
The Vikings, prior to the ~1250 onset of global cooling, routinely used a northern route to reach Siberia and sometimes even China during the 900s, 1000s, and 1100s.
You're going to have to provide some sort of citation for that, I'm afraid. Better, that is, than this one:
http://www.smirking.com/cms/gallery/signs/scadinavian.jpg.html [smirking.com]
Re:WHAT THE!? (Score:3, Insightful)
You do realize that at some point, people don't repeat known information? The sun's energy output that you quote is the sun's energy output as averaged over known cycles.
Re:The perfect way to minimize our carbon footprin (Score:3, Insightful)
I think the concern about the arctic ice is not that it will raise sea levels (by itself it won't), but rather, that losing them will reduce the earth's albino, or reflectivity, which would accelerate the warming.
Re:Ice melting or technological advance ? (Score:3, Insightful)