The first commercial journey from Asia to western Europe via the Arctic

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Quote from the article:

‘Two German ships set off on Friday on the first commercial journey from Asia to western Europe via the Arctic through the fabled Northeast Passage – a trip made possible by climate change…

…

…”My personal opinion is that global warming and climate change, obviously, are developments with some negative effects. However, the melting ice in the Northeast Passage and thus the possibility to transit through this passage for commercial purpose has positive effects, too. This development enables shipping companies to reduce bunker consumption and as a consequence CO2 and other emissions as well which, in turn, are small factors to limit the scope of the global warming.”

…’

Without a doubt there are some benefits to AGW. This one appears to be one - albeit small.

Every little bit helps.

Why have no other ships tried this Northern route yet? Why are you the first?

We are the first company to travel the route this summer he have the suitable vessels and we are prepared to master the challenge. Possible 6 to 8 week window.

We will see, If they make it!

No, idea if they will make it. I do remember a American sub going under the Northern ice in the mid fifties. He did say a Russian sub.
At least I read your bit did you ever read mine?

Some

This warming cycle has been going on for the past 18,000 years. The polar bears once lived in New Jersey but migrated north as Nature drove the glaciers back thousands of miles. Manhattan Island, just a few thousand years back, was covered under a thousand feet of solid ice. The oceans were hundreds of feet lower and mammoths grazed on the plains between what are now France and Britain. Then, a HUGE warming spike hit and most of the change occurred before 6,000 years ago.

And you are STILL calling it AGW? HAHAHAAHAHAHAaaaa.... jeeze, Arch.

The author of the BLOG you quoted used Wikipedia as a reference.

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And guess what? It says right there on that wikipedia page that the route has been done TONS OF TIMES before.

Reading glasses are needed by you and the faux journo, who's obviously not important enough to get a REAL job at Reuters since his reports are just "blog posts" ie HIS OPINION.

quote:

Originally posted by b335494:
The author of the BLOG you quoted used Wikipedia as a reference.

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And guess what? It says right there on that wikipedia page that the route has been done TONS OF TIMES before.

Reading glasses are needed by you and the faux journo, who's obviously not important enough to get a REAL job at Reuters since his reports are just "blog posts" ie HIS OPINION.

I use my reading glasses. I don’t think they make glasses for the attitude adjustment you could use.

Originally I considered linking to the Reuters article written by the same author: Link but I preferred the blog entry because it had more information, and the interesting interview with Niels Stolberg, that emphasized the trip as a benefit of AGW (which I also mentioned in the OP).

Anyone that knows anything about the NE passage would know that it has been done many times before, and would not need Wikipedia to tell them that. It does not open every year however. It has never been used before for a large international transport vessel due to its intermittent nature. It has not even been used for moderate sized trans-Arctic transport with the assistance of icebreakers.

From Wikipedia:

“The Bremen-based Beluga Group will in 2009 be the first company to use the Northern Sea Route for shipping without assistance from icebreakers, cutting 4000 nautical miles off the journey between Ulsan, Korea and Rotterdam.”

If you want to fault me for omitting “without the assistance of icebreakers” that may be fair, OTOH I expected folks to read the source.

It is a truly historic event.

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As you say, it's been done many times before and by ships much more fragile than a large steel-hulled transport.

Well, okay, it's the first time a ship of this type has made the trip. But the path has been used before.

I'd be interested in seeing whether the passage becomes a regular shipping route. It might reduce the need for the Ice Road Truckers currently hauling goods north in the dead of winter across frozen lakes and such.

The Northeast Passage has been a major shipping route since 1934. Hundreds of thousands of commercial shipping vessels have used this route. This might be the first for this company, but it's as silly as saying we just had the first car drive Route 66. We have had a major recovery in sea ice in the last two years. "For the last 11 years we have not observed any increase in global temperatures." That's from the BBC. And all satellite data everywhere concurs.