The Northwest Passage

This morning, on National Public Radio, there was a report on how the shrinking Arctic polar icecap may finally open the explorer's dream, the fabled Northwest Passage:

The Arctic may be the world's next geopolitical battleground. Temperatures there are rising faster than anywhere else in the world, and the melting ice will have profound consequences on the roof of the world, opening strategic waterways to shipping, reducing the ice cap on Greenland, and spurring a rush to claim rights to the wealth of natural resources that lie beneath. NPR examines what's at stake, who stands to win and lose, and how this could alter the global dynamic.

This article, first in a six-part series, includes an animation of the diminishing sea ice over the last twenty years.

While this news might have warmed the heart of Sir John Franklin don't tell the Polar Bears...