epiac1216: The Opening of the Northwest Passage Route

epiac1216 (

epiac1216) wrote,
@ 2007-09-17 14:58:00

Current location:	Republic of Panama
Current mood:	curious
Current music:	Send in the Clowns by Judy Collins
Entry tags:	news

The Opening of the Northwest Passage Route

The permanent opening of a streamlined and stable waterway from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean through the Russian Arctic, has alway been a dream of the international shipping community. Due to the cold temperatures of the Arctic Ocean, this dream has been elusive. This was true until the planet started to warm up due to a climate phenomenon known as "Global Warming".

Many environmentalist experts are now predicting that the Northwest Passage, the legendary shipping shortcut from the Atlantic to the Pacific, could be ice-free in as few as 10 years. A well-documented continuing Arctic thaw is reducing polar ice, a change that is likely to have profound effects on commerce, ecology and native cultures, according to author Richard Kerr, writing in the journal "Science".

Experts say they are "stunned" by the loss of ice, with an area almost twice as big as the UK disappearing in the last week alone.

The Northwest Passage runs below Iceland and Greenland, through the Arctic archipelago in northern Canada, and along the northern coast of Alaska between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. A shipping route through the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic has been touted as a possible cheaper option to the Panama Canal for many shippers.

An ice-free Northwest Passage would let ships traveling between Europe and Asia save more than 4,000 miles off the route through the Panama Canal and would allow ships to avoid the occasional delays and the passage tolls of the canal.

In addition, many of the largest container and tanker ships cannot fit in the 93-year-old canal, forcing shippers to use smaller vessels or to take the even longer, more treacherous route around South America's Cape Horn. This has pressured the government of Panama to start a massive upgrade to the Panama Canal of approximate $5.25 billions. They expect to recover this cost through a hike in canal tolls. An alternative to the Panama Canal route could jeopardize Panama's ongoing construction project.

The shipping industry will have to convince environmentalists and wildlife protectors before they can go ahead and use the Northwest Passage as an international shipping corridor to move cargo from Europe to Asia or vice versa.

The combination of declining ice and dramatically increased ship traffic could alter the feeding habits of fish, seals and polar bears, further threatening the traditional way of life of the Inuit communities that depend on ice-bound Arctic creatures for their survival. In addition, the ghost of an Alaska Exxon-Valdez oil spill also raises concern throughout the region, Kerr wrote.

Shipping experts caution the passage probably would be safe for shipping traffic only in the summer, and ships using the Arctic route would need substantial investment in reinforced hulls to survive ice collisions.

Kerr cited the work of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, which predicts that in as little as a decade, ships would find ice-free passage in the summer months. More conservative climate models show the Northwest Passage opening by the year 2070 or 2080 at the latest. This would give the Panama Canal an opportunity to recover its expansion costs and design a maritime traffic strategy to compete with a new international waterway, besides the Suez Canal.