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Baraka_Guru · 11-26-2009, 06:45 AM

And then there's this:

Quote:

Canada in 2020 (Trade): From Russia with love

Global warming is good news for companies and politicians looking to build Churchill into a central trading hub.

By Jake MacDonald

The Russian vessel Kapitan Sviridov docked in Churchill, Man., after having sailed from Estonia. Its cargo — Russian fertilizer that would be sold to farmers across North America — was the first shipment from Russia that had ever landed at the Port of Churchill, as most ships using the port exported Canadian Wheat Board grain and returned empty. A celebratory reception was held for the incoming ship, with officials from the Russian Embassy, the Port of Churchill, Murmansk Shipping and the government of Manitoba in attendance. Mike Ogborn, the managing director of OmniTrax Canada, the Winnipeg-based company that owns the Port of Churchill and Churchill's rail link, the Hudson Bay Railway, called the arrival of the ship "a great step forward in showing the world that the Port of Churchill is a two-way port."

The celebrants at the October 2007 event were hoping this would prove to be a vital moment in the development of the so-called Arctic bridge, a potentially massive shipping route connecting northern Europe to Churchill. Over the past decade, an alliance of business leaders, North American railway owners and Russian and Canadian politicians have collaborated to promote the route. Today, two years after the first arrival of European cargo in Churchill, many feel the prospects for the route are better than ever. If the Arctic bridge does become a reality, it could funnel a massive amount of exports and imports from across North America and Europe through Manitoba, increasing Canada's overall trade and boosting our prosperity.

Like the long-fabled Northwest Passage, the Arctic bridge seeks to take advantage of the Arctic waterways to shave considerable time from standard routes. While the fertilizer shipment came from Estonia, the main eastern hub of the proposed Arctic bridge would be the seaport of Murmansk, located in the extreme northwest of Russia, just east of Finland. From there, ships would cross the North Atlantic, the ice-filled Hudson Strait and Hudson Bay, landing at the Port of Churchill. Cargo would be loaded onto Churchill's slow and humpy railway to Winnipeg, which has access to major rail and air-shipping facilities, and is only a day's drive from millions of American Midwesterners.

Geography and climate will make the Arctic bridge an inevitability, according to former foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy, who is chairman of Churchill Gateway Development, a partnership formed in 2003 to promote links between Churchill and the rest of the world. "The political and business establishment in Canada still thinks along east-west lines," says Axworthy, who is also currently president of the University of Winnipeg. "But global warming is making Arctic shipping routes more feasible with each year, and freight shipping in North America is destined to take on much more of a north-south orientation."

The National Snow and Ice Data Center, based at the University of Colorado at Boulder, has tracked Arctic ice since 1978, and it recently announced that, as of September 2009, the Arctic ice pack is 34% smaller than it was on average between 1979 and 2000. With global warming, the Hudson Bay shipping season has lengthened considerably. Fifteen years ago, the first ship usually arrived at the Port of Churchill in late July, and the port closed in October. But nowadays the first ships are usually able to make their way through the ice by early July, and the last ones depart in November. The longer shipping season creates tremendous economic potential, not just for Churchill but for all of the Arctic. Some scientists now believe that the Arctic may be ice free by 2015, and northern countries are preparing for the possibility that the legendary dream of a Northwest Passage is about to come true. [...]

Canada in 2020 (Trade): From Russia with love | Managing | Strategy | Canadian Business Online

With the discussion of global warming, and whether or not it exists, I find it interesting to read about those who stand to benefit from it. If global warming is really happening, Canada and Russia will stand to benefit in many ways.

Look at all the sets of data you want, the Arctic passage is opening and it will bring trade between Canada and Russia to an unprecedented level.

I found this interesting, is all.