You know how global warming is turning the Arctic from tundra to marshland? Well, there’s some bad news… and some good news.
The bad news — the Arctic is melting, and there’s really not much we can do to stop the process.
The good news — melting glaciers are opening up a Northeast Passage that will soon allow ships to sail directly from Asia to the United States, along a northern route. In fact, a pair of German ships is ready to make the journey.
While it’s true that Russians, Finns and Latvians have occasionally carried fuel from port to port in the Arctic seas off Russian shores, the idea of sailing through icebergs and glaciers has never really caught on among natives of more southern climes. Perhaps that’s because the danger of being trapped between ice floes and slowly crushed was a bit of a turnoff.
Now, though, melting ice means safer journeys through the frozen north. According to The New York Times, “the Russians hope that the transit of the German ships will inaugurate the passage as a reliable shipping route, and that the combination of the melting ice and the economic benefits of the shortcut — it is thousands of miles shorter than various southerly routes — will eventually make the Arctic passage a summer competitor with the Suez Canal.”
Of course, the Northeast Passage — even in the throes of global warming — is only likely to be open a few weeks a year. Even then, ships may need the help of Russia’s nuclear powered icebreakers to traverse the frozen seas.
But like the storied Northwest Passage that may someday allow ships to pass from coast to coast of North America, the Northeast Passage offers some exciting possibilities for sailors willing to risk their lives for cash and glory.
Photo courtesy of stock.xchng