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Scientists Shocked as Arctic Polar Route Revealed
Paladin144 writes "A route unencumbered by perennial sea ice leading directly to the North Pole has been revealed by recent satellite pictures. European scientists indicated their shock as they noted a ship could sail from Europe's northern-most outpost directly to the pole, something that hasn't been possible during most of recorded human history. The rapid thawing of the perennial sea ice has political implications as the U.S., Canada, Russia and the EU jockey for control of the newly opened passages."
I would think this will open up lots of new trade opportunities between Russia and North America. I don't know what that could mean, but it is certainly interesting. What kind of manufacturing prowess does Russia have that has been heretofore underutilized because they could not as efficiently get goods to North American ports? Or is this all a bunch of hooey?
(I thought of this because I remember reading this article about Pat Broe, which may or may not have been slashdotted, but it is about an investor in the Canadian port of Churchill, Manitoba, which could well profit from an opened northern passage.)
By the way, I live in Manhattan, and I think it's about time to move...to some city somewhere that's 20 or 30 miles inland.
gameDB
Depends where you are. In the US - warming. In Europe - chilling as the gulfstream is supposed to stop. The forecast for UK is 9C lower average temperature and 15C lower minimum temperature during the winter. Considering the build quality of the average british house...
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
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Santa is from Rovaniemi, Finland.
Rovaniemi is a town close to the artic circle in Finland and Finland is a country between Sweden and Russia.
Finland used to be the eastern part of Sweden, but lost it to the Russians in a war. So, depending of the age of santa, he is either a Finn, a Swede or a Russian.
It has been predicted that half of the Netherlands (my homeland) will dissapear gradually during the next 100 years, unless we build better and higher dams all around the sea. Offcourse, parts of the NL are already under sea-level ("polders") but not nearly half of it.
Luckily, I live in the area which will be unaffected, so all I have to do to get rich is buy massive amounts of land here. Still, the implications would be enormous.
The more I think of it, the more I believe we should act, and act quick. But I'm not certain as to act upon WHAT exactly.
Free beer is never free as in speech. Free speech is always free as in beer.
What I find interesting (from a thermodynamics viewpoint) about the melting of the polar ice cap, is that if it was atmospheric warming, and the ice was melting from the top down, you'd expect to see rivers of liquid water. Since this hasn't been reported (so I presume it isn't occuring), I can only assume that the melting is taking place from the bottom up. This means that warm ocean currents travelling underneath the sea ice must be the energy transport mechanism. Now, surely changes in ocean current flow or temperature would have to be significant to change the thermodynamic balance (obviously there are seasonal cycles). Wouldn't the ocean temperature changes and/or flow velocity changes be measureable?
Why would you think that? Sea ice is porous so a small but consistent melt won't be seen. Why do you think there are no rivers of water over the ice pack when summer comes to the poles and the ice retreats?
You may have been joking, but as far as I know Americans are pretty much unique in their desire to build a stick-frame house and glue a thin layer of brick onto the outside. When we moved here from England in 1984 it actually took quite a while for our realtor to make us understand that no, in fact, none of the houses we were looking at were actually "brick" houses. In England, when you have a brick house, its a real brick house made with real structural bricks.
Of course, in the US, everyone's totally chuffed if you live in a "historic" house. You know, like one from the 1920s.
You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
That's a real phenomenon. Of course, it's a long-term one. The North American continent is still in the return swing of it's sea-saw motion, with the part of the continent above the 49th parallel (Canada) rising while the southern half sinks. The northern half was pressed down by the ice during the last ice age, and is still rising from when it all melted away 10,000 years ago.
But that won't affect the ice sheet in question in this article, since this ice sheet is floating on top of the Arctic Ocean and rests on no land at all.
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."