Good news on the opening of northwest passage

Washington Times:

A warm summer has produced a record melt of the polar ice cap, leaving the Northwest Passage clear enough for a sailboat to pass and prompting nations of the far north to assert claims over the Arctic Ocean seabed.

"The entire length of the Northwest Passage is navigable," said Trudy Wohlleben, senior ice forecaster with the Canadian Ice Service, a government agency.

Ice usually blocks at least some parts of the passage, she said. "This melt is unprecedented, and it"s speeding up."

The development threatens to accelerate long-frozen conflicts over security, sovereignty, environmental and economic conflicts among four powers with claims over the Arctic: the U.S., Canada, Denmark and Russia.

...

Beneath the Arctic Ocean floor are potentially vast resources, and Canada and the United States have a long-standing dispute over rights to the Northwest Passage, which joins the Atlantic and Pacific.

Mark Serreze, senior research scientist with the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado, said all records for low levels of Arctic sea ice were shattered by mid-August.

...

Canada's claim of sovereign control over water passage rights through its Arctic archipelago has been disputed by U.S. officials who consider it "international waters."

"Off the record, American officials understand from a security, alliance, partnership, historical perspective it would make imminent sense to work out some kind of understanding of Canadian control" over the Northwest Passage, he said.

...

This issue will get worked out. The trade potential for the route is too important. It will mean a shorter route to get goods from China and Japan and other Asian countries to the US east coast as well as to western Europe and the UK. This is an opportunity that is too big to ignore or become provincial over. It is one of the real benefits of global warming.

Don Surber has a post that suggest that the good news on the northwest passage may be overstated. It seems the sailors are running into would you believe ice.