The North-West Passage

dbeyat45

dbeyat45

Professional Stirrer
Location
SE Queensland, Australia
Interesting article on the opening up of trade routes ....

Global Warming Opens A New Shipping Route For China That 'Could Change World Trade'
http://www.businessinsider.com.au/c...-the-face-of-world-trade-2013-8#ixzz2c8kBZrfT

But ..... as we near the end of the melt season:

North West Passage blocked with ice - yachts caught


  • The Northwest Passage after decades of so-called global warming has a dramatic 60% more Arctic ice this year than at the same time last year. The future dreams of dozens of adventurous sailors are now threatened. A scattering of yachts attempting the legendary Passage are caught by the ice, which has now become blocked at both ends and the transit season may be ending early.
http://www.sail-world.com/Australia/North-West-Passage-blocked-with-ice—yachts-caught/113788

I think I'll hold off investing in Polar shipping for a while yet.
wink.gif
 

I was reading this article about the ice closing up the passage, and it was saying that besides the yachts that may be stuck in there, there is also a cruise ship full of people. That is all the cruise lines need after the calamities of the summer this year. So now they will be showing us pictures on the news of a cruise ship stranded in the ice ?
It is beyond me why anyone would want to go through there on a cruise anyway, but I guess that is just my perspective.

Growing up in North Idaho, and being used to snow up to the eaves of the roof all winter long, snow is not a novelty to me any more at all. And I had to shovel enough of it as an adult living out in the country there, that I don't want to do that anymore either .
I well remember shoveling for hours when the snowdrifts were deep, and we needed to get out to the road to go to town. The old Pontiac wagon would go a few feet (everybody pushing ) and be stuck again , and all of us, kids and all , would be out there with shovels digging it out for another try at pushing it up the driveway.
You would have thought that the kids dad would have learned to park the car out by the road, instead of DOWNHILL where the house was....
 
Possibly unrelated?

Summer of 2013 among coolest on record in Alabama,
continues cooling trend, climatologist says

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - From Huntsville to Mobile, summer temperatures have been cooler than normal this year.


  • 13002077-large.jpg
In fact, the summer of 2013 will be listed as one of the coolest summers in the past 131 years, according to state climatologist John Christy, director of the Earth Systems Science Center at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Christy announced today that this summer is the fifth-coolest on record in Alabama with average temperatures that are almost 2 degrees below normal.


​
http://blog.al.com/breaking/2013/08/summer_of_2013_among_coolest_o.html
 
For what it's worth, Arctic sea ice volume - as well as extent & area - has bounced back in 2013.

Esa's Cryosat sees Arctic sea-ice volume bounce back

The bounce back in the extent of sea ice in the Arctic this summer was reflected also in the volume of ice.

Data from Europe's Cryosat spacecraft suggests there were almost 9,000 cu km of ice at the end of this year's melt season.

This is close to 50% more than in the corresponding period in 2012.

It is a rare piece of good news for a region that has witnessed a rapid decline in both area cover and thickness in recent years.
Click to expand...
but .....
But scientists caution against reading too much into one year's "recovery".
Click to expand...
... of course they do. :( ;)
 

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