Every day, the The Arctic is slipping further in an unstable state. The last sign: a Russian icebreaker and a liquid natural gas ship have crossed the North Sea Route in February for the first time due to exceptionally low and weak sea ice coverage.
The new Arctic is not tied to the past and the ship The trip is a huge red flag for what the future might hold for the region as countries rush forward into the region and plant their flag over the vast resources it has.
The oil tanker, Christophe de Margerie, crossed the Arctic via a route that ran from a liquid natural gas port on the Yamal Peninsula in western Siberia to Jiangsu, China, the northern province of Shanghai. The voyage took him across six Arctic seas, four of which helped him navigate with the icebreaker, 50 Let 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’ voyage across the Arctic with music that would not be out of place as scene at Avengers where all the superheroes meet. In a Press release of Sovcomflot, the Russian shipping company that owns the tanker, issued an equally cheerful assessment of the passage.
“As a result of the first trip of the North Sea Route completed by Christophe de Margerie in May 2020, as well as the current trip along the North Sea Route, navigation in the eastern part of the Arctic practically doubled, ”said Igor Tonkovidov, CEO of Sovcomflot.
While Russian companies may be upset by their changing fortunes, this is bad news for the planet for many reasons. TThe new route through the Arctic is possible due to the rapid rise in temperatures. The region the ships were crossing has seen its old sea ice dwindle to virtually nothing. Older, thicker ice tends to be more resistant higher ocean and air temperatures. Without it, the younger ice pack is more likely to breakup and even when intact, it is usually more fragile. The trip to the Arctic is a discordant sign of this new reality.
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Ice loss intensified last year, with sea ice hitting the lower second degree more engraved. The fall in the seas of northern Siberia was particularly sharp due to the summer heat wave that caused temperatures spiraling above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius) and caused the The tundra of the Yamal Peninsula will explode. The heat also cooked sea ice and the fact that this winter’s ice pack is passable is the end result. Indeed, Siberian icepack could not be reformed within the deadline Last fall.
But this is not just one punctual event. Rosatom noted in the title of the video that cargo traffic along the North Sea Route is expected to increase more than threefold to 80 million tons a year. Meanwhile, Sovcomflot is delighted to receive 18 “new generation” groundbreaking liquid natural gas tanker trucks between 2023 and 2025 to service an Arctic gas project capable of producing 20 million tonnes a year.
Oil and gas companies have been waiting for the opportunity to extract fossil fuels from the Arctic for decades. Climate journalist Amy Westervelt documented a series of tweets how American companies applied for patents for specially built equipment to access and extract oil and gas the Arctic until the 1970s, when they he knew the impacts of climate change but sowed doubts in public about the causes. Drilling in the Arctic has been a business opportunity for decades, driven by companies that now you can take advantage of it while blocking suffering and misery around the world. A report released last month, from the Center for Climate and Security, it was noted that the Russian plan for the Yamal Peninsula and other parts of the Russian Arctic makes it “an area of gas production and export at the same level than Qatar and the United States, ”which would essentially be a finished climate game.
In addition to climate risks, increased Arctic activity also increases the risk of both geopolitical and ecological crises. The Biden administration announced that it would treat climate change as a matter of national security and the Arctic could be the zero point in many ways as it is the fastest changing part of the world and the one countries are already looking for resources. . Russia, Canada, i Denmark have it all claimed the North Pole as its headquarters own, for example. There are thirteen non-Arctic countries Arctic Council observers, including rising powers such as China and India. Interest on the part of companies and governments in the region is high and almost certainly not because of the kindness of their own hearts. Last month’s report from the Center for Climate and Security found that even if the world continues to warm the range of the Paris Agreement, this could still “generate broader international security risks with highly uncertain consequences. “, either through intentional aggression or misunderstanding as more commercial traffic. increases the chances of conflict.
At the same time, increased trade activity also increases the risk of ecological disasters. While the Arctic is more accessible, that doesn’t mean it’s precisely easy to clean it up crews there in the event of an oil spill or some other type of accident. The BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, a spill that happened in the relatively accessible Gulf of Mexico, is still shocking the region 10 years after the fact. The Arctic is a fragile place and has even more to lose if a spill occurs. Even if there is no spill, icebreakers could still have them detrimental effect about the wildlife of the region.
All of this means that the success of last week’s voyage across the North Sea Route is a sign of impending calamity.