Earth Equity News

Shipping Companies Eye Arctic Northeast Passage. By Pierre-Henry Deshayes, AFP, September 4, 2010. "Shipowners are showing growing interest in a fabled trade route to Asia which climate change is beginning to open up at last as polar ice recedes. On Saturday the first non-Russian vessel to make an intercontinental commercial voyage through the Arctic Northeast passage will set sail from Norway for China. The route is thousands of kilometres (miles) shorter than traditional passages, promising to reduce travel time dramatically, along with fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions… Opting for the northern route will also allow ships to avoid the danger of pirates and other attacks in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean... Due to global warming, scientists say they expect the Arctic ice cover to completely disappear during the summer months in coming decades… But for the foreseeable future, the northern route remains a luxury that will be afforded only to ice-class ships, with reinforced hulls, like the Nordic Barents."