Picture of the Day: Northwest Passage
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 09.14.07
I had to rotate the picture from the original source to accomodate my world view, but there it is, the northwest passage, clear from end to end. I have read of Nansen drifting in the ice, and Amundsun spending two years to get through here, and now it is something that recreational sailors are doing. Unbelievable. ::Livescience
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I don't see how this is such a huge commercial bonanza, especially considering all the costs of global warming. The Russians have no money to buy anything, and we have nothing to sell them.
I take it you didn't actually read the artical
I quote-
"The fabled Northwest Passage, if fully navigable, could make the trip 4,000 miles shorter for ships traveling between Europe and Asia if they could avoid the Panama Canal route."
China has a whole lot of stuff they want to sell, and this makes shipping to Europe, and the US east, more economical.
The Russians have no money to buy anything
Are you kidding? Oil's $80/barrel and Russia is sitting on a goodly share of global reserves.
Russia has the 3rd most billionaires in the world.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6433939.stm
I just read a big article on Russia. They are seeing an economic boom from oil and gas revenues (they are big suppliers to western and eastern Europe). And they are huge revenues from mining minerals and metals. They have lots of money to spend and they are spending in two main areas. Searching for new areas of resources and updating their military. They're buying US tech whether its reported or not.
What's with the black circle?
The great beneficary being Russia. I'm all for some jobs being created there, but, with all due respect to a great culture with a long history, it's economically a black hole. They will suck as much money out of the freight savings as they can.
To access Baltic ports in Germany and Poland, or to access the low countries or Britain, you have to go around Scandinavia. Four thousand miles of open sea may seem like a lot, but port costs are also not insubstantial.
Russia is getting money now. They are getting support to drill for more oil and with the higher oil prices they are starting to make a come back.
As the poster above points out, Panama is going to no longer be a primary route, which is bad news for that nation since they now are stuck with it (the US no longer has control).
For the enviromentalists, fear for the Canadian north coast as these frieghters strike icebergs and spill oil and general waste as they pass through.
-Lego