Northwest Passage Now Navigable Thanks to Global Warming

The Northwest Passage. Photo courtesy: NASA

After centuries of sailing across virtually every corner of the world's oceans, it might seem there are no 'firsts' remaining for any ambitious skipper hoping to find a place along with Marco Polo and Magellan in the nautical history books. But, among other things, global warming is changing all that.

Shortly after the discovery of the New World, European explorers sought long and hard for an easy way to usurp those inconveniently placed land masses impeding an easy voyage to the riches of Asia. Unfortunately, they soon learned that the most promising route, between the northern coast of North America and the Arctic -- known as the Northwest Passage -- was impassable due to icy conditions. Thanks to recent melting patterns, however, that's no longer the case.

Photo courtesy: © Belzebub II

This summer, the Belzebub II, a sailboat helmed by a three-man crew, became the first to navigate through the Northwest Passage, from Sweden to the western shore of Alaska -- made possible due to the region's now scarcer ice coverage, the result of global warming.

The crew detailed their journey on their blog, found here.

Unlike some other history-making sailors, the crew of Belzebub II isn't in it for glory -- they simply hope to point out that, even though those early cartographers' maps still look correct on the surface, today the face of our planet is actually not the same.

"By sailing this newly-opened route we hope that our expedition will play a small part in bringing further attention to climate change and contributing to a larger shift in attitudes. The Arctic is melting at an alarming rate and is clear proof of our disharmony with the planet," write the crew. "Our approach to sail across a historical stretch of water that has traditionally been frozen is meant to be a clear visual example of the extent of declining polar ice."

As far as global warming goes, we may have passed the tipping point or the point of no return as it is more commonly called.

Scientists Warn Against Fishing the Newly-Melted Arctic

The newly-melting Arctic. Photo courtesy: NASA Goddard Photo and Video/CC BY 2.0

As you've probably heard, there's a lot less ice up there in the Arctic these days. And less ice means more room for all kinds of fun human activities: It means we can start taking more efficient shipping routes! Drilling for more oil! (Which will, conveniently, help melt even more Arctic!)

And we can fish. The retreating glaciers have opened up new opportunities for fishing vessels to venture forth into new territory — territory in less-regulated international waters — and commercial fishing operations might start looking to cash in. Just one little obstacle: Over two thousand scientists from 67 different nations, each of whom has signed a letter calling for a moratorium on fishing in the newly exposed areas of the Arctic until they can better understand the ecosystem.

Here's Nature:

In all, more than 2.8 million square kilometres make up these international waters, which some scientists say could be ice free during summer months within 10 to 15 years. Although industrial fishing hasn’t yet occurred in the northernmost part of the Arctic, the lack of regulation may make it an appealing target for international commercial fishing vessels.

“The science community currently does not have sufficient biological information to understand the presence, abundance, structure, movements, and health of fish stocks and the role they play in the broader ecosystem of the central Arctic Ocean,” says the letter, which ... calls for the Arctic countries to put a moratorium on commercial fishing in the region until the impacts of fisheries on the central Arctic ecosystem, including seals, whales and polar bears, and those who live in the Arctic, can be evaluated.

This is clearly and incontrovertibly a good idea; of course we should know something about these unexplored underwater ecosystems before we charge in trawling for crab.

And the scientists may have gotten out far enough ahead of the ball here to stand a chance this time—but I wouldn't count on it. We've seen how much weight the recommendations of the scientific community gets in the court of international trade policy these days, especially regarding fisheries (bye, bye bluefin tuna). But perhaps I'm being too cynical. And perhaps none of this matters too, too much, because of that other part—you know, where the Arctic is ice-free in 10-15 years. Scientists have been warning us about what happens after that, too.