Morning Politocadoes!
Wanted to highlight a different story today than the usual fuckery by the most dangerous septuagenarian on the planet. In news that would make European explorers spit their tea and adjust their monacles, a Danish vessel is set to ship cargo from Vladivostock through the Arctic, passing the Bering Strait all the way to St. Petersburg.
While the passage isn’t currently economically viable, the ship Venta Maersk, is equipped with nuclear powered ice breakers which aren’t particularly affordable. Nevertheless, the company is expecting the expedition will gather new data and provide essential data about future viability for the route.
And it’s all thanks to Climate Change.
From 1979 to 2017, sea ice has declined by 33, 200 square miles or a 13.2% per decade in comparison to the 1981 to 2010 average. With this change in the arctic sea, many countries have looked towards the possibility of northern shipping routes rather than through the Suez Canal. The Nothern Sea route is but one example of these attempts.
Global Warming is changing our world in more ways than we can imagine. In 2013, the freaking Northwest Passage became a commercial reality with transport of coal by the MS Nordic Orion, a shorter route than through the Panama Canal by 1,000 nautical miles. How we view what’s in our geopolitical interests could turn on a dime. We’ve fought wars over this sort of stuff and the fact that the US is currently ignoring any and all climate change science is short-sighted indeed.
How do you think the climate change affects states’ political interests?
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