| From: | shadowrn@*********.com (Richard Tomasso) |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Trans-polar ice |
| Date: | Wed Mar 13 11:00:01 2002 |
Trans-Polar Aleut territory, and with the general unpredictability
of such things, might be a campaign element for some folks.
USA - NAVY SAYS POLAR CAP IS SHRINKING (MAR 13/ADN)
ANCHORAGE DAILY NEWS -- According to a new U.S. Navy report, the
polar ice cap is shrinking so fast that ships may be transiting the
Northwest Passage regularly each summer by 2015, and along the
northern coast of Russia even sooner, the Anchorage Daily News
reports.
The summer cover of ice could even disappear almost entirely by
2050, and that poses a new problem for the U.S. Navy: a new ocean to
patrol.
The final report from the symposium on Naval Operations in an
Ice-Free Arctic concludes that the U.S. Navy does not have the
ships, equipment or logistics to patrol an open polar sea and that
the Navy should start planning to deal with it now.
Among the concerns are the disappearance of the ice "canopy" that
hides U.S. submarines and the opening of thousands of miles of North
American coastline to marine operations by rival navies or even
terrorists.
However, on a more positive note, NASA notes that the disappearance
of the polar cap could open up more routine commercial shipping and
new fisheries.
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