Impact of Warming Arctic Vastly Different for Land and Sea Routes

A new study details the impact of sharply rising temperatures on Arctic land and sea transportation in the next 50 years, with access to crucial ice roads dropping significantly while three new shipping routes open up in an Arctic Ocean that will be largely ice-free in summer. Geographers at the University of California, Los Angeles, said that a projected increase in winter Arctic temperatures of 7 to 11 degrees F by mid-century will mean that the eight countries bordering the Arctic will experience declines in access to winter ice roads of 11 percent to 82 percent. These roads are especially important in Russia and Canada, where they are used to supply remote communities and also play a key role in the mining business. Canada’s Tibbitt-Contwoyto, used by diamond miners and featured in the show “Ice Road Truckers,” is projected to see its eight to 10-week season shortened by 17 percent in the next decade alone, the study said. The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, said that three new Arctic shipping routes will be open in summer in the next four decades, including the northern route above Russia and a route from the North Atlantic to the Bering Strait.