Impassable Northwest Passage Open For First Time In History

An anonymous reader writes "The Northwest Passage, a normally ice-locked shortcut between Europe and Asia, is now passable for the first time in recorded history reports the European Space Agency. Leif Toudal Pedersen from the Danish National Space Centre said in the article: 'We have seen the ice-covered area drop to just around 3 million sq km which is about 1 million sq km less than the previous minima of 2005 and 2006. There has been a reduction of the ice cover over the last 10 years of about 100 000 sq km per year on average, so a drop of 1 million sq km in just one year is extreme.'"

Comments

Excellent

[Anonymous Coward]

Now ships can transport manufactured goods from Asia at much cheaper prices.

Global Warming actually has some upsides after all.

Makes me want to go there...

[Kjella]

...just so I can tell my grandkids (ok since this is slashdot, someone else's grandkids): "Yep, I was there. Just miles and miles of ice as far as the eye can see, all floating on water. 'course it's gone now, all melted away because of global warming - I hear the US just recently acknowledged it might be a possibility too."

Re:Cooler! (eh, ok, perhaps *warmer*...)

[Bluesman]

Eh, you have to expect that. I find it hilarious that the Internet eco-set doesn't seem to know where the technology they use comes from or why it's cheap enough for them to afford.

Re:first time in 30 years

[sumdumass]

LOL.. This week? I have been watching the global warming crowd grow along side the forgive the third world debt crowd sine the 80's. And then the forgive the third world debt crowd disappeared once the Kyoto accord was implemented and we had to major issues hiding the forgive the third world debt movement. One was they disappeared. The other was that the Kyoto accord didn't actually reduce GHG emissions but set an unrealistic measurement and when countries couldn't meet them, they farmed the pollution out to third world countries to enrich them buy either foreign investments or by carbon credits.

So you can call it the conspiracy of the week. But I'm wondering how you would explain the drop of the third world debt concern when the Kyoto accord was made seeing how it was gaining so much momentum at the time, and how do you explain the outs in the Kyoto accord where it basically forces countries to invest in third world countries?

If there isn't a connection there, I don't know where one would be. Some of the people and groups claiming to support the forgiving of the third world debt are actively supporting Kyoto. And the majority, Yes the Majority of countries who signed onto the Kyoto accord are set to receive this investment. They don't have to limit anything. You do the math and look past the sensational headline of the week. You will probably see a lot of other things wrong like scientist wanting to review studies being used to support global warming and getting refuse on their request for access to the data used. One refusal even set out as the reason "because they worked to hard on it to have you discredit it".

Somethings up here, I don't think it is just the temperature.

Re:Cooler! (eh, ok, perhaps *warmer*...)

[E 99]

'al gore is right!' bandwagon

FYI: Al Gore is not a scientist. Please argue with respect to the studies performed in the field of Climatology and Atmospheric Science.

The problem has nothing to do with actual climatology. The problem is the crap that Al Gore says, and people believe, and advocate economic policy based upon.

Re:I wonder why?

[sumdumass]

is that all it takes to discredit the theories and anti theories? Predictions that don't come true? Like how the sea waters haven't risen near as much as originally projected, or how the total temperature isn't a high as it was said to be by now? Or would it be using faulty math to make you think that the 90's were the hottest years on record in the last century that conveniently skips over the 30's. Of course the faulty math was pointed out by a skeptic and even Hansen had to admit it was wrong and they had to change the numbers for everything because of it but after making adjustments in the US alone, it showed the 30's to be hotter.

I have seen predictions come and go. None of them have fruited to the maximum they have been predicted to have. The "20 years" predictions didn't come around until the mid to late 90's so they would be up in a few more years.

As a matter of fact, I believe you and I discused some of this previously then the faulty math story was on the front page of slashdot. Did you forget that you were wrong or are you doing this on purpose?

Now they're saying that there are no predictions (ha!) and that it's not anthropocentric and that maybe it's a "good thing".

I don't know who you are listening to but this stuff has been going on and coming out since the 90's. If it is just now happening for you it is because you totally ignored the opposition until you were convinced enough to seek protect your ideals.

That doesn't mean that alarmism doesn't exist, mind you, but believe that global warming is anthropocentric and mainly responsible for the melting of the summer sea ice in the arctic is hardly alarmism -- it's realism.

You have no proof it exists as in man causes it. If we were to examine the global warming factors, the amount of gases man itself is responsible for are a tiny, tiny fraction of the green house gases. It comes to less then .01 percent of the total gases. And not, that isn't .01 of the GH gases, it is .0001 of the total gases or less. The amounts purposed as needing to change is a tiny fraction of that too. So out of .0001 of the total green house gases, less then half of that reduced is supposed to fix the AGW problem. Do you really think those numbers ad up?

Going back to failed predictions and all, Do you think there is a reason they are attempting to change it from global warming to climate change? Could it be because after things didn't start panning out, they could keep it going and keep the investments into the third world countries going? You might not be involved with that portion of it. But make no mistake, you are a pawn in it. If you want we can discus all the failed predictions and see which side has more. We can also talk about all the alternative theories including the sun which look more plausible now that some of the faulty math has been corrected. We can also talk about how H2O which is the most abundant GHG has been increasing almost as long as the "recorded global warming" has but is considered a feedback instead of a forcing in most of the models.

There are a lot of things we can talk about if you want. How people are getting their life threatened, how they are threatened with getting credentials removed and how they are having careers destroyed and losing their jobs if they question global warming. Of course they would all be proved by someone else. I don't think either one of us are doing active research that contributes to the current debate. The lack of creditable opposition doesn't prove much when people are fearing for their lives and lively hood if they come forward with something against the popular theory of the day. Even the IPCC has protocols to deal with shaky evidence and give it more credit. It is public knowledge and available on their website. I mean come on, if you can't smell a swindle or a scam, I don't know how.

Re:Arctic minimum, antarctic maximum

[kmac06]

What I took away from your rant is you want people to believe man-made global warming is real so you can punish the evil corporations.

Re:Cooler! (eh, ok, perhaps *warmer*...)

[IgnoramusMaximus]

The track record of being "centered around local products and services" is continuation of poverty. Almost all 20-21st century examples of countries leaving massive poverty has been driven by export-lead growth.

The reason for that is, of course, that the supposed "helpers", which "helped" these nations to "grow" their economies, were in fact parasitic predators whose objectives were the exact opposite. So the only remaining game plan available to those countries was to play the predator's game, and to try out-predator the parasites at their own shtick, consequences to society and environment be damned. Some succeeded at this, some did not.