Though Climate Change warms up northern Canada the Northwest Passage is normally frozen even in summer. But “if the current rate of ice thinning continues, the Northwest Passage could be open to more regular navigation by 2015″ [1].
A navigable Northwest Passage offers a route between Tokyo and New York that is 7,000 km shorter than the route through the Panama Canal, thus saving on time, fuel and transit fees. The implications in terms of increased ship traffic, pollution and infrastructure development regarding ArcticÂ’s fragile ecosystems are obviously.
Sunday October 22nd: Panama voted for a $5.25 billion investment and cannel’s expansion. Construction is set to begin in 2007 and will take up to eight years to complete. The idea is to build a third set of locks on the Atlantic and Pacific sides, creating a separate lane for larger cargo, cruise and tanker ships and doubling the canal’s capacity.
2005 about 5% of the world’s seagoing traffic, 68 percent of it to or from the United States passed through the cannel., including over a third (by weight) of cargo going from north-east Asia to the United States’ east coast.
Even with the broader cannel there are supersized freighters too big for planned locks. Nicaragua’s five hundred years old vision of linking Pacific Ocean with Lake Cocibolca and then Carribean Sea might become reality.
Do all these economic prospects really anticipate Global Warming and its implications?
thestar.com: Canada must seak deal width U.S.
economist.com: Panama votes for a bigger canal
nytimes.com: As Polar Ice Turns to Water, Dreams of Treasure Abound
nzherald.nz: Nicaragua’s ‘grand canal’ dream in sight
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