Low sea ice opens new Europe – Far East route

MELTING SEA ice in the Arctic’s N orthwest Passage has opened up a 15 day voyage for vessels travelling between Europe and the Far East. It currently takes 22 days via the Straits of Malacca and Singapore and on to Europe through the Suez C anal and the Mediterranean Sea. But the levels of sea ice in the Arctic region are at their lowest levels since satellite measurements began 30 years ago, opening up a long-sought but historically impassable route between Europe and Asia, the European Space Agency has revealed. The ESA describes satellite images recently taken of the region as a “fully navigable” route between the Atlantic and the Pacific. “A shipping route through the N orthwest Passage in the C anadian Arctic has been touted as a possible cheaper option than the Panama Canal for many shippers. We have seen the ice-covered area drop to just around 3 million square kilometres,” said Leif Toudal Pedersen of the Danish N ational Space Centre. A security specialist at the Institute of South East Asian Studies in Singapore feels the opening up of the Arctic passage “could radically alter energy import patterns, particularly for countries like C hina, Japan and South Korea that are increasingly dependent on oil and gas from far-away and politically volatile regions like the Middle East and Africa.”