Beam Me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 09/12/2009 4:43:42 AM PDT by reaganaut1
MOSCOW — For hundreds of years, mariners have dreamed of an Arctic shortcut that would allow them to speed trade between Asia and the West. Two German ships are poised to complete that transit for the first time, aided by the retreat of Arctic ice that scientists have linked to global warming.
The ships started their voyage in South Korea in late July and will begin the last leg of the trip this week, leaving a Siberian port for Rotterdam in the Netherlands carrying 3,500 tons of construction materials.
Russian ships have long moved goods along the country’s sprawling Arctic coastline. And two tankers, one Finnish and the other Latvian, hauled fuel between Russian ports using the route, which is variously called the Northern Sea Route or the Northeast Passage.
But 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.
“It is global warming that enables us to think about using that route,” Verena Beckhusen, a spokeswoman for the shipping company, the Beluga Group of Bremen, Germany, said in a telephone interview.
Lawson W. Brigham, a professor of geography at the University of Fairbanks who led the writing of an international report on Arctic commerce, the Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment, confirmed that the passage of the two German ships appeared to be the first true commercial transit of the entire Northeast Passage from Asia to the West.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Maybe both arguments can be made -- lawyers call this "arguing in the alternative".
global warming ping
Who’s claiming that earth temperatures all must stay in lockstep sans anthropogenic influence? A warming of Arctic ice might be counterbalanced by a cooling elsewhere.
IF this sea passage is open when it hasn’t been before, this indeed proves warming in this particular area, although there are other possible explanations such as shift in currents.
However, it does not of itself show that the warming is global, not that it is anthropogenic in origin.
IF this sea passage is open when it hasn’t been before, this indeed proves warming in this particular area, although there are other possible explanations such as shift in currents.
However, it does not of itself show that the warming is global, not that it is anthropogenic in origin.
Actually, there is more ice this year in the Arctic than last year and the Northwest Passage was not open this year. However, these ships are going on the Russian side.
Take a look at the satellite images: http://igloo.atmos.uiuc.edu/cgi-bin/test/print.sh?fm=09&fd=11&fy=2008&sm=09&sd=11&sy=2009
Most problematic shortcut since Red Riding Hood.
http://igloo.atmos.uiuc.edu/cgi-bin/test/print.sh?fm=09&fd=11&fy=2007&sm=09&sd=11&sy=2009
Russian ships have long moved goods along the country’s sprawling Arctic coastline. And two tankers, one Finnish and the other Latvian, hauled fuel between Russian ports using the route, which is variously called the Northern Sea Route or the Northeast Passage.
So, if they've "long moved goods along the sprawling Arctic coastline" then this isn't a recent phenomenom. And if they've long used it, it isn't due to global warming, is it?
They can do this because every summer, the Pack Ice retreats and the coastal waters open up for a period of about 2 months. On the American side of the Atctic Ocean, the water is too shallow for large low draft shipping, which is why they use barges. The Russian side is much deeper, but the same melting and ice retreat happens there as well. So, they could take advantage of that short period to move commercial shipping.
This is not something new here. It is a regular occurrence when the Arctic Sun never goes down. It is rather temperamental however, and often unreliable. When the winds that are generated by Continental warming, pull the ice in against the coast, the shipping lanes close until cloudy weather patterns create the opposite effect.
This has been a regular pattern for the last several hundred years. To say that this is because of GoreBull Warming its typical Liberal propaganda and lies.
In a word, Yes!
This just in from MSNBC: “webschooner’s dog took a rather large dump this morning ... Alarmingly, government-funded scientists on the case have definitely linked that action to global warming. Government officials at the highest levels are very concerned.”
Two months to traverse this shortcut? Must not have all been smooth sailing. And why are they doing it in “legs”?
hh
Two German ships are poised to complete that transit for the first time, aided by the retreat of Arctic ice that scientists have linked to global warming.Okay, the MSM stories are getting WORSE.
These two ship were escorted by a couple of ICE BREAKERS.
I didn't see any posters addressing this either ..
This post by Roger addresses it:
From the story I read two days ago they were assisted by two nuclear-powered icebreakers, not one. Other points:All these Beluga company vessels were built specially reinforced against ice. They thus, presumably, cost more than ordinary vessels and have less cargo capacity.
It would be risky to have sent ordinary vessels through the route in company with them currently, since ordinary hulls and propellers would likely get dented and dinged by small ice debris left in the wake of an icebreaker.
The two Beluga vessels that transited the Passage made their voyage because they were delivering heavy equipment from a manufacturer in Asia to a Siberian port. They then continued westwards to their homeport in Europe. They were not doing so because the NE passage to Europe is shorter and more economical.
They had to wait in port in Asia (paying crew’s wages and port fees) for weeks before they got the green light from the Russians that the coast was the clearest it was going to get, and that their icebreakers were available. And speed was reduced during the portion of the voyage that required the icebreakers to clear a path ahead. These factors mean the route is not nearly economical yet for ordinary shipping.
How ironic that an Arctic shortcut will save the consumption of millions of tons of Bunker C fuel and REDUCE CO2 output!
Either there’s still a lot of ice to chew, or they got pirates to pay off! :)
Seriously, 2 months sounds more like the window, not the time required. *shrug*
Neither.
The ONLY argument against cap-and-trade is that it is a comprehensive system of tyranny, part of a long train of abuses and usurpations evincing a design to reduce us to an absolute despotism.
NO ONE believes in the existence of AGW. That's not what cap-and-trade is about.
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