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posted by martyb on Wednesday October 21 2015, @11:12AM   Printer-friendly
from the Henry-Hudson-was-ahead-of-his-time dept.

Beneath the Aurora Borealis an oil tanker glides through the night past the Coast Guard ice breaker Amundsen and vanishes into the maze of shoals and straits of the Northwest Passage, navigating waters that for millennia were frozen over this time of year.

Warming has forced a retreat of the polar ice cap, opening up a sea route through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans for several months of the year.

Commander Alain Lacerte is at the helm as the vessel navigates the Queen Maud Gulf, poring over charts that date from the 1950s and making course corrections with the help of GPS.

[...] Today, taking this route cuts 7,000 kilometers (4,350 miles) off a trip from London to Tokyo, saving time and fuel.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 21 2015, @02:57PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 21 2015, @02:57PM (#252783)

    Admiral Byrd warned us we need to be ready to fight the blueskins when this happens:

    “Adm. Byrd declared today that it was imperative for the United States to initiate immediate defence measures against hostile regions. The admiral further stated that he didn’t want to frighten anyone unduly but that it was a bitter reality that in case of a new war the continental United States would be attacked by flying objects which could fly from pole to pole at incredible speeds. Admiral Byrd repeated the above points of view, resulting from his personal knowledge gathered both at the north and south poles, before a news conference held for International News Service.”

    Those caps are the only thing keeping them locked in.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 22 2015, @08:33AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 22 2015, @08:33AM (#253127)

    Is Admiral Byrd that Eagle Muppet? Just asking. Sounds the same.