But is it a good riddance? Multiyear ice is, as the name might suggest, ice that has remained ice for years. Going through the summer-winter cycle without completely melting means that the ice starts to have different properties, less salt and more air pockets. It becomes quite tough to break as well. This is why ships tended to go the long way round, because they just couldn’t sail through this tough ice. But thanks to people like George Bush (it’s been a while since anyone mentioned him so I thought I would, he must be feeling neglected) now this ice is gone, in the arctic at least, where most of it used to reside. Because no piece of ice has survived for many years without melting, all the ice there is now is effectively new. While this is a sign for those who are not blind that the climate might actually be changing, there are still advantages to be gained.
The silver lining in this otherwise massive black cloud is that ships can now sail right through this mushy fresh ice without even an icebreaker showing the path. This will save a lot of time and energy (think ships saving fuel but this saving can’t be that much really!). This will also mean that exploration for stuff will be feasible. Let’s just hope they don’t find more oil there. But mainly it is minerals and whatever else they can make money out of. Bad news for Egypt though, seems like less ships will be going through the Suez Canal, and so less money into the country, not like we saw any of it anyway.
So some think that soon enough we would actually be able to sail over the north pole. No one said magnetic or geographic but I am guessing both. Now here I see an opportunity to be the first ship to sail over the north pole unaided. Anyone wants to join?
