Results tagged “northpole”

The Arctic ice is apparently all gone, or may well be soon, according to the (UK). "The disappearance of the Arctic sea ice," writes science editor Steve Connor, "making it possible to reach the Pole sailing in a boat through open water, would be one of the most dramatic – and worrying – examples of the impact of global warming on the planet. Scientists say the ice at 90 degrees north may well have melted away by the summer." It turns out that currently, 70% of the polar ice cap is "first year" ice. The ice cap shrinks and expands yearly, but last year it shrunk to one of the smallest levels yet known, to within 700 miles of the pole. This year, scientists predict it could completely disappear for the first time in known human history.

Princess Cruises and Holland America are both currently in a kind of limbo in Seattle. They use Terminal 30 by Harbor Island which the Port wants to convert back to something that can be used by container ships. The plan is to move the cruise berths to Terminal 91 in Magnolia where they can be properly outfitted with shore power and whatnot, but the cruise lines aren't excited about it because that will mean a bigger moorage bill for them and they'll have to schlep their passengers that much farther from the airport. Last month the Port announced that it was delaying the project, uh, until construction prices come down? Does the Port know something we don't? Construction prices don't come down.

The Seattle-based U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy arrived at the North Pole on Monday as a part of an international scientific mission. The 420' Healy is accompanied by the Swedish icebreaker Oden and together the ships are offically set to conduct sea floor mapping and ice coring exercises, but if you believe that's their only mission than Seattlest needs to clue you into the military significance of the S. Claus Northern Compound. We're just saying, you don't go to the North Pole for ice cubes. The next destination for the Healy is Tromsø, Norway. (If the cartoonish qualities of the map linked in the previous sentence seem odd to you, you should see the plan for the Aftermath of the Iraq Invasion that's hidden away inside the Pentagon.)