CLIMATEWIRE | Climate change is thinning Arctic sea ice, but contrary to conventional wisdom that’s making shipping through the North American Arctic more difficult. A study published in Nature looked at Canada’s Northwest Passage over 15 years. It found that the melting of local ice due to global warming enables thicker ice from Greenland to flow into the corridor’s choke points, reducing the length of time when ships can move through the passage.
“First-year ice, that's retreating. But it means the thick ice — multiyear ice — is then more able to flow down into those areas,” lead author Alison Cook, a researcher at the Scottish Association for Marine Science and the University of Ottawa, said in an interview. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing .
By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. That thicker ice poses hazards for ships, such as damage or sinking if there’s a collision. The results contradict the common view that the Northwest Passage, the Arctic Ocean waterway linking the Atlantic and Pacific, is an increasingly practical option for commercial shipping.
It even surprised Cook. “I certainly was assuming the season length was becoming longer everywhere, and it just wasn't,” she said. Cook and her colleagues looked at historical ice charts of the Northwest.