Media 're-open' North Eastern Passage
Eric Gisin
Thermageddon fever disappears 70 year trade route
By Andrew Orlowski . Get more from this author
Posted in Environment, 14th September 2009 14:30 GMT
One of Russia's commercial maritime trade routes for the past 70 years has been "re-opened" by a
press hungry for dramatic Global Warming scare stories - but who failed to check the most basic
facts.
I've traced this fascinating example of "eco-churnalism" - peddled by both BBC Radio and its
website, the Daily Mail, The Independent, Reuters and many others - back to its origins, with a
press release from a German shipping group. But first of all - what on Earth is the Northern
Passage?
[image: globe with passage] Northeast Passage in Red
Also called the Northeast Passage or North Sea Passage, it's a trade route that in summer months
links the North European and Siberian ports to Asia, around the Arctic Circle. Orient-bound traffic
heads east, then South via the Bering Straight. Much of the Siberian North coast lies outside the
Arctic Circle, and the route offered significant gains over the alternatives via Suez or the Cape.
But until technological advances in the early 20th Century it was considered too hazardous for
commercial operation.
Since the 1930s the route has seen major ports spring up, carrying over 200,000 tons of freight
passing through each year, although this declined with the fall of the Soviet Union.
But none of this ever happened, we learned on Saturday. The Independent reported that the journey
had been traversed for the very first time, proclaiming that two German ships had completed "the
first commercial navigation of the fabled North-east Passage", proclaiming it "a triumph for man, a
disaster for mankind". BBC Radio followed suit.
[image: BBC www] Look out polar bears: a freighter is about to hit you
Others have followed the BBC.
* Climate change: too good to be true *
It didn't take long to trace the origin of the story. On Wednesday, German shipping group Beluga
claimed "the first non-Russian commercial vessels to make it through the Northeast Passage from
Asia to Europe".
You can still read their press release, here. Journalists failed to challenge Beluga's claim that
the Northeastern Passage was "formerly impenetrable", but bloggers had debunked it within seconds.
(See An Englishman's Castle here - and Richard D North's EU Referendum blog here and here.)
North unearthed a fascinating account of the past 80 years of this sea route (pdf, 17pg) by a
retired mariner Jan Drent, who made the Europe to Asia Northeast Passage himself. Drent writes that
the Soviet Union offered to open the route to global commerce in 1967, but with war in the Middle
East closing the Suez, Russia didn't want to offend its Arab allies.
In their haste to bring us Thermageddon, journalists now simply manufacture the evidence. But
wasn't the recent warming period - which started began in the mid-1970s and with temperatures
peaking in the late-1990s - a contributory factor? Arctic Ice has recovered the past couple of
years, but it's still down on 30 years ago.
As it happens, the thaw has helped, but isn't the primary reason, according to maritime historians.
"In the past ten years voyages between the northern coast and Japan and Canada have demonstrated
how modern ice-strengthened vessels and contemporary ice forecasting have extended the navigation
season."
Ignore all that, however. If the BBC is to remain trusted, we can only conclude that these are
phantom ships, failing to penetrate a previously impenetrable trade route, dropping off phantom
cargo at phantom port towns. �
Eric Gisin
They were not regular ocean ships, they were "ice class".
Beluga-Owned Ships Pass Through Northeast Passage in First
By Kari Lundgren
Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Two Beluga Shipping GmbH-owned ships passed through the Northeast Passage
in what the company said was the first time a Western commercial vessel has used the channel to
travel from South Korea to Siberia.
MV Beluga Fraternity and MV Beluga Foresight arrived in Yamburg, Siberia on Sept. 12, the Bremen,
Germany-based company said in a statement on its Web site. The vessels were escorted by two Russian
ice-breakers.
Ice covering the Arctic Ocean melts during the summer to an annual minimum before re-freezing over
winter. Global warming has sped up the melting process, opening many channels that were previously
impassable, scientists say. The prospect of an open ocean may increase shipping and has sparked a
rush to claim sea- bed mineral rights by nations such as Russia and Canada. Royal Dutch Shell Plc
and BP Plc are stepping up exploration for oil off Alaska and Canada.
Beluga is planning to continue sending ships through the passage in 2010, according to the
statement. Fraternity and Foresight will continue southwest to deliver more than 3,500 tons of
freight each to Rotterdam, Holland, company said.
The passage required "extremely accurate preparation," Chief Executive Officer Niels Stolberg said
in the statement.
To contact the reporter on this story: Kari Lundgren in London at klund...@bloomberg.net
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=al4jFWtKyHu0
John M.
>
> http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=al4jFWtKyHu0
Certainly a better report, and it makes no mention of your imaginary
"ice class ships"
Eric Gisin
How dare you question my authority, you stupid green fuck.
Google News of "northeast passage" comes up with ice class ships.
"John M." <john_howa...@hotmail.co.uk> wrote in message
news:c7ecee35-e71c-41e9...@p23g2000vbl.googlegroups.com...
On Sep 15, 3:12 am, "Eric Gisin" <gi...@uniserve.com> wrote:
> This article gets it right, this is the first time a *western* ship has made the trip.
> They were not regular ocean ships, they were "ice class".
>
John M.
> No it is not better,
I love it when denialists contradict themselves.
the original in the Register pointed out how corrupt the MSM has
become.
Where does methyl sulphonyl methane come into the equation?
> How dare you question my authority,
you stupid green fuck.
Do you wish to debate, or trade ad homs, you top-posting pillock?
> Google News of "northeast passage" comes up with ice class ships.
OK, so I should have looked it up first. Mea culpa, but the link you
gave did not contain this term, as you had implied.
> "John M." <john_howard_mor...@hotmail.co.uk> wrote in message
John M.
wrote:
> John M. schrieb:
>
> > Certainly a better report, and it makes no mention of your imaginary
> > "ice class ships"
>
> fixed route, but responding to opportunity), these vessels have a
> medium ice class, in this case Germanischer Lloyd E3. This is similar
> to Baltic ice class 1A, and is enough for 80 cm of ice.
>
> Polar class vessels feature a spoon shaped bow, or similar arrangements,
> to get pushed on the ice and breaking it.
>
> The vessels in question feature the standard bulbous bow of efficient
> freighters. They are just a bit thicker at the water line, for
> protection.
Thank you for a very informative post - these are quite a rarity here
on alt.g-w
John M.
wrote:
> Eric Gisin schrieb:
>
> > It didn't take long to trace the origin of the story. On Wednesday, German shipping group Beluga
> > claimed "the first non-Russian commercial vessels to make it through the Northeast Passage from
> > Asia to Europe".
>
> > You can still read their press release, here. Journalists failed to challenge Beluga's claim that
> > the Northeastern Passage was "formerly impenetrable", but bloggers had debunked it within seconds.
>
Yes, it always is a good idea. But not for the wilfully ignorant, such
as the poster you are replying to and his ilk. When they choose to
close their minds, no fact can intrude.
> With LL1 - LL3 (Russian ice class) vessels, it has never been a problem
> in September, but these ships make sense for northern Russia only.
>
> The Beluga F-Class vessels are standard tramp freighters with a bulbous
> bow and nothing more than Germanischer Lloyd E3. No sane person buys tramp
> freighters without some medium ice class. You can't trade the Baltic or
> St. Lawrence without.
>
> While they got company by a Russian LL1 vessel, this was an insurance issue,
> and not needed. (Insurance is a major problem on this route.)
>
> > In their haste to bring us Thermageddon, journalists now simply manufacture the evidence. But
> > wasn't the recent warming period - which started began in the mid-1970s and with temperatures
> > peaking in the late-1990s
>
> In figures:http://maps.grida.no/library/files/storage/3_arctictemperatures_003.png
>
> > - a contributory factor? Arctic Ice has recovered the past couple of
> > years, but it's still down on 30 years ago.
>
> In figures:http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/current.area.jpg
>
> > As it happens, the thaw has helped, but isn't the primary reason, according to maritime historians.
>
> For the historical perspective, ice maps are easily available for
> comparison.http://igloo.atmos.uiuc.edu/cgi-bin/test/print.sh?fm=09&fd=17&fy=2009...
>
> In a convoy with 2 icebreakers, a Beluga F-class could have used the passage
> 30 years ago, that's true. But not without.
>
> Beluga wants to send several P-class vessels across next year, claiming
> a saving of $ 600000/journey for the bigger vessels. For the small
> F-class vessels, it's just $ 350000.