A meandering blog with no clear topic. You will find me talking about knitting, building, kids, social and economic issues, Alaska, and lots of other stuff.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Northwest Passage????

Check out this National Geographic article:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/09/070917-northwest-passage.html


OK, so this seems pretty crazy to me. The northwest passage is open? Arctic sea ice loss this year has been nothing short of catastrophic:

"The NH [Northern Hemisphere] sea ice area is currently at its historic minimum (2.92 million sq. km) representing a 27% drop in sea ice coverage compared to the previous (2005) record NH ice minimum." according to the polar research group's website that I linked to in my blog last month. At that time, sea ice was 3.22 million square kilometers, so it has lost another .3 million in three weeks.

And what does National Geographic have to say about it?

"Commercial shipping may be a while off yet. The passage is seasonal, is likely to be unstable enough to endanger commercial vessels, and still lacks supporting ports along the way. "

Unbelievable. I don't even know what to say.

No comments: