WHAT CLIMATE CHANGE? Arctic Ocean Shipping Routes ‘To Open for Months’
University of Reading, UK, researchers have investigated how the decline in sea-ice, driven by warmer temperatures, will make the region more accessible.
They find that by 2050, opportunities to transit the Arctic will double for non ice-strengthened vessels.
These open-water ships will even be going right over the top at times.
And if CO2 emissions are not curtailed - if the aspirations of the Paris Agreement to keep global temperature rise “well below two degrees” are not implemented - then moderately ice-strengthened vessels could be routinely ploughing across the Arctic by late century for perhaps 10-12 months of the year.