23 June 2013
Melting ice has opened up the Northern Sea Route along Russia’s Arctic coastline, changing international trade patterns in profound ways — even if so far it looks more like a sleepy county road than a busy, four-lane highway.
In a change of potentially revolutionary significance, the travel time between the Japanese port of Yokohama and Hamburg in Germany has been cut by 40 percent, while fuel expenditure is down by 20 percent.
Just one minor problem. The entire Russian coastline is blocked with ice.
I got travel insurance in case they cancel this years cruise.
Lucky!
They must have meant the other Russian Coastline…. the one that’s open…. in some other dimension.
The Russians have a fleet of ice breakers just to keep it open. Of course it is fun to watch when they get stuck or can only make 2 km a day.