Free Republic

PASCAGOULA, Miss.—A $13.3 billion program to safeguard American interests in the Arctic has run aground on an old industrial challenge: cutting and shaping thick, hardened steel. U.S. officials are racing to procure new polar icebreakers because one of only two that the Coast Guard now sails has reached the end of its life, and the one assigned to the Arctic is out of service for maintenance every winter. Delivery of the first new icebreaker has slipped to 2028 from 2024 as designers, engineers and welders grapple with something the U.S. hasn’t done in decades: reliably shape hardened steel that is...

Six New Icebreakers To Be Built For Canadian Coast Guard By: Xavier Vavasseur August 13, 2019 10:54 AM The Canadian Coast Guard will be procuring six new program icebreakers to replace its current aging fleet of icebreakers. The announcement was made on Aug. 2 by Canada’s Minister for Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, Jonathan Wilkinson. Minister Wilkinson also announced that the Government of Canada is officially launching a competitive process, through an Invitation to Qualify, to add a third Canadian shipyard as a strategic partner under the National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS). This new shipyard will build the new...

President Obama’s urgent call to construct a new fleet of heavy Coast Guard icebreakers to monitor the contested Arctic is belied by his recent budgets that slashed funding for even one new ship. Mr. Obama, in a game of polar ice chess with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his 40-plus icebreakers, made the gap one of his themes as he toured Alaska last week. Officials say the U.S. needs to keep pace in the face of an increasingly serious challenge by Russia, which is making new territorial claims on the Arctic. But even by the White House’s own internal projections,...

[Carbon Off-Set:] A total of 800 kauri trees will be planted which during the first 50 years of their life will offset more than the total carbon used to fuel the AAE. Kauri of course lives much longer than this and is even known to reach ages of more than 2,000 years. The amount of carbon assimilated by the trees was calculated using the kauri growth calculator based on many field studies and research.

Canadian Coastguard icebreakers are smashing through a massive expanse of pack ice to try to free about 100 sealing vessels stuck off Newfoundland's northeast coast. According to officials about 15 vessels are in danger of having ice pierce their hulls.Seal ship stranded