Climate change could enable Arctic shipping

As global warming thaws sea ice, the maritime route along the northern coast of Russia linking Europe and the Far East is gradually opening. The 13,000-sea mile passage could almost halve the current travel time. When the first English ship arrived in Japan almost 400 years ago, its owners and the government in London had two goals in mind. They wanted to find a new market for English wool and a short route along the northern coast of Russia that would dramatically reduce the time required to sail from Europe to the Pacific. However, both the East India Company and King James failed to meet their objectives. The Japanese were already well clothed and the rudimentary maps of the period failed to include the Russian Far East, Siberia or the Kurile Islands. Four centuries later, a number of ships have begun navigating the icy route between Europe and Asia. The vessels weigh anchor each summer when Arctic ice is at its thinnest, hoping to pave the way for further ships in the years ahead. In August last year, the "Knutsen," with a cargo of liquefied natural gas, arrived in the Japanese port of Yokohama, becoming the first LNG carrier to complete the Northern Sea Route from Norway. Warmer weather and reduced amounts of ice in the Barents and Kara seas meant the route to the Bering Strait was only blocked by "young ice" a mere 30 centimeters thick. The Knutsen's journey is considered significant as it is believed that the transportation of energy sources will become pivotal in this route. "Last year, the amount of sea area covered by ice shrank to the smallest amount on record," Eiji Sakai, an analyst with Japan's Ocean Policy Research Foundation, told DW.