Throughout history, the Northwest Passage has been known among the seafaring community as a place one simply can’t travel. For many centuries, people looked to use this passage to make for a shorter route between Europe and North America, but the dense ice left it as an impossibility. Recently, the reduced amount of ice has made the passage much more manageable, especially for modern ships. To prove this, a cruise ship has even decided to take the journey.

Where Is The Northwest Passage?

The Northwest Passage is a route connecting the northern Pacific and Atlantic through the Arctic ocean. Historically, that passage has been riddled with ice, making for more ice formations than water. During the mid-1800s, many started to look for alternative routes that might allow them passage. It wasn’t until 1903 that the first successful journey through the passage began. In a journey led by Roald Amundsen, sailors were able to work their way through the Northwest Passage in three years. While that might be a long time, it was still an impressive feat at the time. After all, passing through that way was considered a pipe dream for most sailors.

A Changing Landscape

Only about 100 years later, the 14-deck cruise ship Crystal Serenity has shown that a changing landscape makes the journey much more manageable. Instead of taking three years to make the passage, this ship was able to push through from Alaska to New York in just one month. Thanks to the melted ice caps along the path, the ship was able to make a relatively undisturbed journey through the Northwest Passage, navigating it much like it would any other popular cruise route.

What Does This Say About The Climate?

Of course, those with a political agenda will always look at climate change as something to spin. Avoiding that bias, it tells us one simple fact: the climate on earth is changing. Anyone who studied basic earth history should have no problem accepting this though. Solar radiation is constantly going through increases and decreases in intensity. Earth has had more than a couple of ice ages throughout history and the planet has undergone some significant transformations. So, news that demonstrates a changing climate really shouldn’t be surprising. Rather than divide and believe that you need to follow one set of beliefs based on the words that lies under your “party” on that voter registration card, you might want to take this as a wake-up call. Things are going to change, and preparing for that change in some way could definitely be prudent.

 


What do you think about this cruise line traveling through the northwest passage? Do you think humans can reverse the changing climate or do you think they should just prepare as nature takes its course? Let us know what you think in the comments below.


 

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Joseph Macolino
Joseph Macolino
When Joseph is not writing for his Evorath fantasy series, he tries to spend time honing his physical prowess to one day become the Punisher. Most of the time, he just ends up perfecting the art of procrastination by watching Netflix, reading other good fantasy books, or playing some mindless game. Follow him at Evorath