Climate change will make commercial shipping possible from North America to Russia or Asia over the North Pole by the middle of the century, a new study says.
Two researchers at the University of California ran seven different climate models simulating two classes of vessels to see if they could make a relatively ice-free passage through the Arctic Ocean. In each case, the sea routes are sufficiently clear after 2049, they say.
The study, published Monday in the journal PNAS by Laurence C. Smith and Scott R. Stephenson, found that the sea ice will become thin enough that a “corridor directly over the north pole” will open up. “The shortest great circle route thus becomes feasible, for ships with moderate ice-breaking capability.”
(A great circle route is the shortest distance between two points on the surface of a sphere, such as the Earth.)
via npr
