Northwest Passage - BBC Environmental Documentary For centuries solid ice defeated attempts by global traders to find a way through the Northwest Passage. Now global warming has done just that. Amid the arguments to and fro about the true extent of global warming, and the degree to which responsible people ought to be alarmed, I find one recent piece of news of the consequences of climate change particularly arresting. Warming temperatures are melting the Arctic sea ice, making hitherto inaccessible stretches of the Arctic Ocean fully navigable. This September, satellite images showed the Northwest Passage to be ice free for the first time since records began, allowing shipping to travel comparatively unhindered from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. The search in the 16th Century for a corridor between the frozen northern wastes was driven by intense international competition

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