Still doubtful that the Arctic ice is melting? Shipping companies are banking on it

Danish shipping company Nordic Bulk Carriers said it has saved a third of the cost and nearly half the time in shipping goods to China by taking advantage of receding Arctic ice to sail north of Russia instead of via the Suez Canal. As the climate warms up and ice melts, many shipping companies are eyeing the Northern Sea Route as a way to cut voyage times and costs in the future.

Interesting little blurb from the good folks over at i09. It seems this was the first year ships began using the Arctic as a major shipping route. Seems pretty obvious now that the ice is melting despite what I have heard some people say. I think we can still argue all we want about global warming, but it's hard to argue the ice i going away.

Apparently this route will never be the Suez as the conditions only allow for about 4 months out of the year.

Link

reply to post by Domo1


In the 1970's they were complaining about encroaching ice . . .
www.time.com...
Another Ice Age?
Monday, June 24, 1974

Telltale signs are everywhere — from the unexpected persistence and thickness of pack ice in the waters around Iceland to the southward migration of a warmth-loving creature like the armadillo from the Midwest.Since the 1940s the mean global temperature has dropped about 2.7° F. Although that figure is at best an estimate, it is supported by other convincing data. When Climatologist George J. Kukla of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory and his wife Helena analyzed satellite weather data for the Northern Hemisphere, they found that the area of the ice and snow cover had suddenly increased by 12% in 1971 and the increase has persisted ever since. Areas of Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic, for example, were once totally free of any snow in summer; now they are covered year round.

Oh too bad Pacific Ocean CO2 models are wrong . . .

Global Warming Models Lie : Ice Age CO2 Rising Carbon Dioxide Levels Not Tied to Pacific Ocean,
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Earth's Plant Life 'Recycles' Carbon Dioxide Faster Than Previously Estimated (25%)
www.abovetopsecret.com...

How do you explain these?

Cargo Ships are big, really big. Im supprised they can only ship for 4 months of the year! Conditions must be pritty bad during the remaining months.

reply to post by Domo1


The sun is really active this year. How many solar flares and cmes so far? There are plenty of threads here on ATS that mentions a CME or solar flare when it happens. Global warming is a myth, the sun remains the most influential body in our solar system affecting all weather. Even the moon has its moments.


Why do people insist on global warming instead of acknowledging the fact that the sun has alot to do with weather?

Jeez, I am not saying I believe in Global Warming. I'm saying that the ice is melting. I remember reading a few threads back in the day that claimed the ice was not melting.

I believe in global warming, what I don't believe in is MAN made global warming. I don't think we have much to do with what is happening with the ice sheet(s). I think it's a cycle we have been there and done that before, and it will happen many more times in the future.

Originally posted by Domo1
Jeez, I am not saying I believe in Global Warming. I'm saying that the ice is melting. I remember reading a few threads back in the day that claimed the ice was not melting.

I know, but you still mentioned it

I think we can still argue all we want about global warming,

You have no idea how much I cringe at those two words. My bad.

But yah I do agree that the ice is melting. But what is odd however, I have yet to see a rise of sea level and I live near a beach.

Originally posted by Domo1

Danish shipping company Nordic Bulk Carriers said it has saved a third of the cost and nearly half the time in shipping goods to China by taking advantage of receding Arctic ice to sail north of Russia instead of via the Suez Canal. As the climate warms up and ice melts, many shipping companies are eyeing the Northern Sea Route as a way to cut voyage times and costs in the future.

Interesting little blurb from the good folks over at i09. It seems this was the first year ships began using the Arctic as a major shipping route. Seems pretty obvious now that the ice is melting despite what I have heard some people say. I think we can still argue all we want about global warming, but it's hard to argue the ice i going away.

Apparently this route will never be the Suez as the conditions only allow for about 4 months out of the year.

Link

This isn't the first time in "history" the North Pole or the Northwest Passage has been ice-free. Routine monitoring of the poles has only been around since 1972. It's certainly not for the first time in human history. That's absurd. The media is up to its usual doom and gloom scenarios.

Anyway, there are several expeditions that encountered an ice-free Arctic. We also have to keep in mind that the first expeditions to find the Northwest Passage--and the Pole--occurred during the Little Ice Age, thus we'd expect a larger pack of ice to block the way. The ships of those days also weren't equipped to break through pack ice of that thickness. But here are some examples, most pre-1978, that have encountered ice-free conditions in the Arctic.

Roald Amundsen successfully navigated the Northwest Passage in 1906. That's common knowledge.

The Canadian ship St. Roch led three expeditions to the Arctic. On October 11, 1942, this ship sailed west to east and landed at Halifax, Nova Scotia, successfully navigating an ice-free Northwest Passage. In 1944, the same ship did it again, landing in Vancouver, British Columbia.

www.athropolis.com...

On September 10, 2000 (yes, 11 years ago!) the BBC reported that “A Canadian police patrol boat has completed a voyage through the fabled Northwest Passage without encountering any pack ice.” Apparently they forgot they even wrote that article, because on September 14, 2007, they reported: “The most direct shipping route from Europe to Asia is fully clear of ice for the first time since records began.”

The name of that Canadian police patrol boat? St. Roch II, and it was re-enacting the voyage of the first St. Roch.

There are more. USS Storis, 1957.

Willy de Roos, 1977. De Roos was a businessman on a solo voyage. You can see a clip of the video here:

archives.cbc.ca...

Another Canadian ship sailed part of the way with de Roos. So you've got two ships in the supposedly impassable Arctic at the same time.

SS Manhattan, 1969.

Mike Beedell and Jeffrey MacInnis, two Canadians, did it in a catamaran in 1988, using nothing but wind power.

archives.cbc.ca...

MV Linblad, 1984. This was a tourist ship that went from Newfoundland to Japan. The ship did it again in 1988.

Pandora, 1876.