Tag Archives: arctic ocean

New shipping channel will carry natural gas through the Arctic

by DorothyWbb Posted on July 11, 2014

A gassy, icy concoction

New shipping channel will carry natural gas through the Arctic

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Most people think the thinning of the sea ice at the top of the world is a bad thing. But not shipping and fossil fuel interests.

Shipping companies this week announced that they would use icebreakers to carve a new Arctic shipping route to help them deliver natural gas from a processing plant in western Siberia to customers in Japan and China. The Wall Street Journal reports:

Once virtually impassable, the Arctic Ocean is now attracting interest as a shipping route because global warming has reduced the ice cover within the Arctic Circle. More ships have been plying the northern route between Europe and Asia, which is roughly 40% shorter than the conventional path through the Suez Canal.

Last year, 71 ships crossed the Arctic Ocean between Europe and Asia, compared with four in 2010, according to Japan’s transportation ministry.

Mitsui O.S.K. characterized its planned route as the first regular service linking Europe and Asia via the Arctic, although it will operate the Arctic route only during the warmer months of the year.

“The shorter distance would be good for buyers, by cutting shipping costs and reducing other risks,” said Yu Nagatomi, an economist at Tokyo’s Institute of Energy Economics.

A truly less risky approach, of course, would be leaving the fossil fuels in the ground and off the ocean’s surface. But, hey, $.


Source
Shipping Firms to Add Arctic LNG Route, The Wall Street Journal

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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New shipping channel will carry natural gas through the Arctic

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A Closer Look at That ‘North Pole Lake’

by Myrna Posted on July 27, 2013

A flurry of Web discussion of a “North Pole lake” misses some important points. Original link: A Closer Look at That ‘North Pole Lake’ Related Articles Dot Earth Blog: A Closer Look at That ‘North Pole Lake’ Arctic Methane Credibility Bomb Dot Earth Blog: Arctic Methane Credibility Bomb

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A Closer Look at That ‘North Pole Lake’

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Dot Earth Blog: A Closer Look at That ‘North Pole Lake’

by Myrna Posted on July 27, 2013

A flurry of Web discussion of a “North Pole lake” misses some important points. See the original article here – Dot Earth Blog: A Closer Look at That ‘North Pole Lake’ Related Articles Dot Earth Blog: Arctic Methane Credibility Bomb A Closer Look at That ‘North Pole Lake’ On Rooftops, a Rival for Utilities

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Dot Earth Blog: A Closer Look at That ‘North Pole Lake’

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John Kerry Updates His Climate Change Creds at the Arctic Council

by Emily Collins Posted on May 14, 2013

Mother Jones

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Secretary of State John Kerry is headed to Kiruna, Sweden, tomorrow, 14 May, for a ministerial meeting of the Arctic Council, the only diplomatic forum focused exclusively on the Arctic region. Members represent the eight nations with territory north of the Arctic Circle (Canada, the US, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, and Sweden), plus representatives of Arctic indigenous peoples. The Council’s concerns include a broad swath of environmental issues stemming from a wildly changing global climate amplified in the Arctic.

The meeting comes 25 years after Kerry hosted climate change hearing with Al Gore in the Senate and nothing happened. This year’s Arctic Council is focused on mitigating a future oil spill as drilling in the far north ramps up. Ministers will be signing of an historic Arctic Marine Oil Pollution Preparedness and Response Agreement. The State Department describes this as an agreement that will “forge strong partnerships in advance of an oil spill so that Arctic countries can quickly and cooperatively respond before it endangers lives and threatens fragile ecosystems.”

Sounds great, except we can’t contain offshore spills, no matter the level of cooperation. Still, Kerry’s attendance will boost interest in an obscure Council and the problems—for most—of a faraway place.

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John Kerry Updates His Climate Change Creds at the Arctic Council

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We’re Scarily Close to the Permafrost Tipping Point

by dfonis5 Posted on March 5, 2013

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Permafrost—the ground that stays frozen for two or more consecutive years—is a ticking time bomb of climate change. Some 24 percent of Northern Hemisphere land is permafrost. That’s 9 million square miles (23 million square kilometers) found mostly in Siberia, the Tibetan Plateau, Alaska, the Canadian Arctic, and other higher mountain regions.

Unfortunately, thawing permafrost releases massive amounts of methane and/or carbon dioxide. The question is whether that would happen over the course of decades or over a century or more. This short video from the Yale Climate Forum explains the current scientific thinking on just how close we might be to the lethal tipping point.

Meanwhile this 90-second permafrost primer from the Climate Desk explains exactly we want this northern freezer to remain frozen.

The map below shows land-based permafrost in the Northern Hemisphere. It also shows the subsea permafrost that underlies the continental shelves of the Arctic Ocean.

Map of Northern Hemisphere permafrost on the land and under the Arctic Ocean: Credit: Tingjun Zhang via the National Snow Ice Data Center

We really really don’t want permafrost to melt since its emissions have the potential to dwarf our own. As the Yale Climate Forum video says, we have the theoretical ability to control our carbon emissions but none whatsoever to stop a permafrost tipping point once it’s reached.

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We’re Scarily Close to the Permafrost Tipping Point

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