“Commercial shipping will be possible from North America to Russia or Asia over the North Pole by the middle of the century, thanks to climate change, a new study says.”
“Commercial shipping will be possible from North America to Russia or Asia over the North Pole by the middle of the century, thanks to climate change, a new study says.”
Wouldn’t there have to be additional warming first?
Promises, promises. And now we have to wait until 2050. Too bad burning more coal won’t speed things up.
Amundsen got through the NW passage in 1906.
Russians have been using the NE passage commercially since the 1930s.
They just change the dates as the years goes by.
1922 – Arctic Ocean Getting Warm; Seals Vanish and Icebergs Melt (Monthly Weather Review, November 2, 1922)
1923 – Report the arctic is getting warmer (The New York Times, February 25, 1923)
1923 – Getting warmer in the arctic ocean (Chicago Tribune, March 1, 1923)
1932 – Soviet Ship Circles Franz Josef Land (The New York Times, December 5, 1932)
1935 – Warm Water Passage Is Found in Arctic (The New York Times, September 3, 1935)
1940 – Ice In Arctic Melting Rapidly (The Hartford Courant, October 13, 1940)
1958 – Ice at the North Pole in 1958 and 1959 – not so thick (Watts Up With That?)
1969 – Expert Says Arctic Ocean Will Soon Be an Open Sea (The New York Times, February 20th, 1969)
and now we can add …Climate Change To Open Arctic Sea Routes By 2050
Even if the entire Arctic Ocean opens up briefly during the summer, the probabilistic nature of *weather* dictates that it will freeze in the winter. Ports large enough to accommodate modern container ships (and the land transportation infrastructure required to service those ports) simply will not be cost-effective to install in an area with a very limit history of very limited commerce. It would be like building International airports to handle 747’s between the Galapagos Islands and Cocos Island.
Well, yes, but you know how construction delays go.
I thought that the Arctic was ALREADY supposed to be open for shipping by now, at least according to what the alarmists said about 5 or 6 years ago.
The NPR article says: “Arctic sea ice has shrunk to its smallest extent on record..” Unfortunately, records have only been kept very recently. Once again, the indigineous people (favorites of warmists) did not keep any records.
Remember Henry Hudson looking for the Northwest Passage during the Little Ice Age. If he had been around during the medeival warming period, he probably would have succeeded.
The Northwest Passage has been crossed with ice-breakers and there have been a very few years when it was open briefly in summer. The likelihood of the icecap retreating far enough for routine traffice through the Passage is close to zero. The likelihood of a complete melt of the Arctic Ocean’s ice surface seems beyond remote.