Daily, The Arctic slips on in an unstable state. The last sign: a Russian icebreaker and a liquid natural gas vessel crossed the North Sea Route in February for the first time due to the exceptionally low and weak sea ice layer.
The new Arctic is not about the ship’s past the journey is a huge red flag for what the future might hold for the region as countries move to the region and plant their flag over the vast resources it holds.
Tank, Christophe de Margerie, crossed the Arctic via a route from a liquid gas port on the Yamal Peninsula in western Siberia to Jiangsu, China, a province north of Shanghai. She traveled on six Arctic seas, four of which had navigation aids with ice breaker, 50 Leave Pobedy. On February 19, both ships arrived safely at the Sabetta terminal, marking the end of the voyage.
Rosatom, a Russian nuclear power company that owns the nuclear-powered icebreaker, released a video last week detailing the two ships’ journey through the Arctic with music that would not move as the scene from Avengers where all the superheroes gather. One Press release from Sovcomflot, the Russian shipping company that owns the tanker, issued an equally cheerful assessment of the passage.
“As a result of the first trip on the North Sea route completed by Christophe de Margerie In May 2020, as well as the current voyage on the North Sea route, navigation in the eastern Arctic has been virtually doubled, ”said Igor Tonkovidov, CEO of Sovcomflot.
While Russian companies may be drawn to their changing fortunes, this is bad news for the planet for many reasons. Tthe new route across the Arctic is possible due to the rapid rise in temperatures. The region traversed by ships has seen its old sea ice dwindle to almost nothing. Older, thicker ice tends to be more resistant to lower ocean and air temperatures. Without it, the younger ice pack is more prone to breakageup and even when intact, it tends to be more fragile. The journey across the Arctic is a discordant sign of that new reality.
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Ice loss has intensified last year, with sea ice hitting the second smallest measure ever recorded. The drop in the seas of northern Siberia was particularly sharp due to the summer heat wave that sent temperatures spiraling over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius) and caused The tundra of the Yamal Peninsula to explode. The heat also cooked sea ice, and the fact that this winter’s ice pack is acceptable is the end result. Indeed, Siberian ice failed to reform in time last autumn.
But this is not just one unique event. Rosatom mentioned in the video legend that it expects freight traffic along the North Sea Route to increase more than three times to 80 million tons per year. Meanwhile, Sovcomflot is pleased to receive 18 “new generation” liquefied natural gas tanks between 2023 and 2025 to serve an Arctic gas project capable of producing 20 million tons per year.
Oil and gas companies waited the opportunity to extract fossil fuels from the Arctic for decades. Climate journalist Amy Westervelt documented in a series of tweets the way in which American companies applied for patents for specially built equipment to access and extract oil and gas from Arctic since the 1970s, when they he knew the impact of climate change, but publicly sowed doubts about the causes. Drilling in the Arctic has been a business opportunity for decades, fueled by companies that now take advantage of it as you get stuck in suffering and misery around the world. A report freed Last month, the Center for Climate and Security noted that Russia’s plan for the Yamal Peninsula and other parts of the Russian Arctic makes it “an area for gas production and exports on an equal footing with Qatar and the United States,” which would essentially be a climate game over .
In addition to climate risks, more Arctic activity increases the risk of both geopolitical and ecological crises. The Biden administration has announced that it will treat climate change as a matter of national security, and the Arctic could be a zero point in many ways, as it is both the fastest changing part of the world and the one in which countries are already fighting for resources. Russia, Canada, and Denmark I have everything claimed the North Pole as theirs own, for example. Thirteen non-Arctic countries are observers at the Arctic Council, including growing powers such as China and India. The interest of both businesses and governments in the region is high and almost certainly not in the goodness of their own hearts. The report from the Center for Climate and Security last month found that even if the world continues to warm up under the Paris Agreement, it could “lead to wider international security risks, with extremely uncertain consequences”, or through deliberate aggression. or misunderstandings because traffic is more commercial. raises the chances of conflict.
At the same time, increased trade increases the risk of ecological disaster. While the Arctic is more accessible, that doesn’t mean it’s exactly easy to clean crews there in the event of an oil spill or other type of accident. The BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, a relatively accessible spill in the Gulf of Mexico, is still shocking the region 10 years after the fact. The Arctic is a fragile place, with even more to lose if a spill happens there. Even if there is no spill, the icebreakers could still have one harmful effect on wildlife in the region.
All this is to say that last week’s successful voyage on the North Sea route is a sign of an impending calamity.