The Arctic melt that has opened up the Northwest Passage again may be good for business, but it’s bad for potential terrorism against the US.
In the past, the remote gray waters of the Alaskan Arctic saw little more than the occasional cargo barge and Eskimo whaling boat, but that’s changed: There are now so many ships in the area that the Coast Guard can’t keep track of them. They have no idea what these vessels are carrying or who is on them.
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For the last 60 years, the Arctic has warmed twice as fast as the rest of the Earth, and some Asians business people are taking advantage of this fact. The thawing at the top of the globe gives access to incredible mineral wealth and drastically shorter shipping routes to the Atlantic through the now reopened Northwest Passage.
The Arctic waters not only contain fish, the US Geological Survey estimates that 30% of the world’s undiscovered reserves of natural gas, and 13% of the undiscovered oil, are there–as well as coal, iron, uranium, gold, copper, rare earths and gemstones.
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Five years ago, we warned that this might happen and now it has: the Northwest Passage–the direct shipping route from Europe to Asia–is now clear of ice, for the first time since records started being kept 30 years ago.
BBC News reports that "historically, the Northwest Passage linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans has been ice-bound through the year." But global warming has changed that.
In LiveScience.com, Andrea Thompson writes that since "the opening of the fabled Northwest Passage and the recent announcement that Arctic Sea ice has reached a new record summer low are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to polar problems."
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