As Arctic ice melts, as expected due to climate change, previously frozen northern waterways could become a valuable new shipping lane for Moscow. To access that route, sometimes known as the Northern Sea Route, would require Russian-issued permits and drive shipping traffic through the country.
Next week, shipping giant Maersk will pioneer exploratory efforts to open a northern shipping route through the Arctic for container ships. Maersk will send its 3,600 20-foot ice-class container ship, the Venta Maersk, through the route carrying a cargo load of frozen fish and Korean electronics.
The ship will also be collecting data on the route conditions in addition to monitoring crew performance, ship capabilities and other factors that speak to the future viability of the route.
For Russia, the decision by Maersk to try out the route is a welcome message as Moscow hopes to gain control of a sea route rivaling the Suez Canal. The Arctic route, which runs from Murmansk to the Bering Strait, would make for a shorter journey than the one through the Suez Canal, although it will continue to be blocked by ice most of the year.
In addition to permitting fees, Russia sees the route as an important step for future development, and has already invested in new roads, ports and other infrastructure that would serve the shipping lane. Russia also provides most of the ice-breaker escorts needed to transverse the Arctic sea, and would benefit from more business.
This is all great news for Russia, but not so much for the rest of the world.
Frozen ice caps reflect sunlight back into space whereas navigable ocean waters absorb it. Recently, Arctic sea ice has been on the decline That means that if there is less ice and more water, the oceans and the earth heat up at increasing rates in a cycle that is nearly impossible to reverse.
In the meantime, however, Russia and shipping companies will cheer the melting ice.
