Northwest Passage nearly open
It's been a dream of navigators since the 15th century - a regular sea route to the Orient without the long, arduous sail around the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn. For centuries, snow and ice blocked the Northwest Passage across the top of Canada. Indeed, it made it impossible to know whether it even existed. No one had sailed the route until a century ago, and the way was blocked by ice too much to make it practical.
Now, thanks to unprecedented summer melting of the Arctic sea ice, that sea route has nearly opened to blue water this month.
Here's a satellite view of the northern ice cap, showing the dark blue all-water path through the islands of northern Canada reaches nearly to the open water north of Alaska. The ice has also nearly melted clear of the entire Siberian coast.
Here's more on this summer's record meltdown on the Arctic Ocean. And there's still a few weeks to go before the Arctic Ocean begins to refreeze.
Comments
Seeing a ship in that passage is not good: It is breaking up the ice, thus permitting the ice to melt more rapidly, thus enhancing global warming. The area should be monitored to keep all human interference away from it.
Posted by: Mack Judge | August 30, 2007 9:20 AM
That's a generic CG icebreaker in that photo. I'm not sure where it was taken. But it is the type of icebreaking operation that would be required to assure safe passage through the Northwest Passage should regular shipping ever begin up there. It's also the sort that goes on normally to help keep human settlements in the arctic supplied. Given the scale of the natural forces and global climate change at work in the region, it's doubtful that routine icebreaking operations are having much impact. - Frank Roylance
Posted by: frank roylance | August 30, 2007 10:13 AM