According to researchers, global warming has caused serious melting in the Arctic could open up new and unexpected shipping routes.
The rapid and extensive melting of the Arctic due to global warming has been a serious concern for scientists for some time now. However, results of a new study have turned the researchers more optimistic about this phenomenon. According to them, melting of the Arctic due to global warming could open up new shipping routes, making the Suez and Panama canals more accessible. This would be due to the melting of an unprecedented amount of sea ice during the late summer.
"The development is both exciting from an economic development point of view and worrisome in terms of safety, both for the Arctic environment and for the ships themselves," said lead researcher, Laurence C. Smith, a professor of geography at UCLA.
According to findings of the study, by the mid of this century, ordinary ships will be able to navigate through parts of the Arctic Ocean, which were previously inaccessible. Even ships that can cross these parts nowadays require icebreakers to pave their way through, which may not be the case in another 50 years, researchers said.
"We're talking about a future in which open-water vessels will, at least during some years, be able to navigate unescorted through the Arctic, which at the moment is inconceivable," said co-author, Scott R. Stephenson, a Ph.D. candidate in the UCLA Department of Geography.
Researchers also believe that the sheet of ice in the Arctic will become so thin that polar icebreakers would easily be able to navigate between Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
"Nobody's ever talked about shipping over the top of the North Pole," Smith said. "This is an entirely unexpected possibility."
The study was conducted last September, which is known to be the month when the Arctic Ocean is most accessible and the findings of the study were published in the latest issue of the scholarly journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Plus.
