Russia’s Suez Canal? Ships start plying a less-icy Arctic, thanks to climate change

Russia’s Suez Canal? Ships start plying a less-icy Arctic, thanks to climate change
William Booth and Amie Ferris-Rotman September 8 2018

LONDON — Under partly sunny skies and relatively balmy temperatures in the low 50s, the Venta Maersk sailed through the Bering Strait this past week and steered hard to port, beginning a modern-day voyage of discovery that could hearken a transformation for global shipping and the Arctic environment.

The Venta is a big, new, pricey, ice-class vessel owned by Danish shipping giant Maersk — and it is the world’s first container ship to attempt the Northern Sea Route, the fabled Northeast Passage that runs from the edge of Alaska to the top of Scandinavia along Russia’s desolate Siberian coastline.

Maritime transit is now possible between July and October because of the rapid and, to many, deeply unsettling retreat of Arctic sea ice due to profound climate change, a trend that is amplified at the North and South poles.

continue...https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/russias-suez-canal-ships-sta...