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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGlobal warming enables first container ship to do this
Maritime history was made this month with the passage of the first commercial container ship through the Northern Sea Route of the Arctic Ocean, a route made possible by the melting of Arctic ice.
The Venta Maersk, a new ship loaded with Russian fish and South Korean electronics, left Vladivostok, Russia, at the beginning of September and is expected to arrive in Bremerhaven, Germany, next week, after successfully navigating ice-plagued seas from the Bering Straits north.
The waters at the top of the world have warmed rapidly over the last four decades, at nearly twice the rate of warming in the rest of the world, according to the Arctic Council, an international group that studies the region. The United Nations' panel on climate change says the dramatic warming is unprecedented in human history.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/global-warmings-melting-polar-ice-1st-commercial-container/story?id=57878655
********I can't help but think that no wonder the oil companies aren't much concerned with their industry contributing to global warming after reading this.
genxlib
(5,507 posts)Shipping interests have sought after it for centuries. Now they finally have it.
This is one of those easily digestible facts to throw in the face of deniers. Anyone who can look at this and deny that the world isn't changing is beyond hope.
Wounded Bear
(58,440 posts)Dennis Donovan
(18,770 posts)I'd also be really fucking old!
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)also, including cargo ships but not containers I think, but for some reason the passage is riskier than Russia's Northeast Passage aka Northern Sea Route. Russia's busily developing that to export commodities, especially oil and gas. Still too greedy for quick profits to develop industry.
And of course military uses. The two don't seem so far from each other when viewed across the top of the world, though I wouldn't care to try to drive across.
Beautiful day in the NW Passage.
Uncle Joe
(58,112 posts)Thanks for the thread Ohiogal.