Artic Ice Melting Allows for North West Passage to Open and "Who Owns the Waters?" Dispute

You probably think the talk every year about the Artic ice melting has begun to be a Chicken Little type story. After all, first they said it would melt in 100 years, then 50 years, then 10 years,... Guess what? Last year the North West Passage was COMPLETELY open for the month of August and may also be open for this August as well. I am not here for a climate discussion, but to show how this is a political and economic issue. The North West passage is making available a new shipping lane that will, for certain months of the year, make the Panama and Suez Cannals unnecessary for some shipping traffic; this may mean lower prices for some goods, cutting over half of the distance necessary for their voyage. A new shipping lane "magically" becoming available also means that quite a few countries think the revenue that can be charged from ships going through that water should be theirs; as in, a few countries say they "own" that waterway. As the USA (Alaska), Canada, and Russia border the Passage, each feels their country can lay claim to the water. Russia has already built 18 ice-breakers to patroll the area and Canad is commisioning five for now with more money allocated for a few years down the road. To let you know how Russia will most likely handle this, Russian ships have been harrying US ships along the straight by Alaska for years, coming into US waters frequently. Will countries come to blows over this? Quite possibly.

If you want to hear more about this:

Listen to a radio program on Coast to Coast AM for Saturday, August 23rd at http://www.coasttocoastam.com and click on "Shows" at the top

ViVisit Google to search for news articles on this topic by go8ing to http://www.google.com and clicking on "News"

Visit my Xomba homepage: