As Global Powers Prepare To Carve Up The Arctic, US Doesn't Even Have Enough Icebreakers

[hatrack]

SEATTLE — When Coast Guard Adm. Thad W. Allen imagines a melting Arctic, it's not a pretty sight: Cruise ships collide with icebergs. Oil tankers and ore ships run aground. Foreign fishermen sneak into American waters.

Even worse, the nation's top Coast Guard officer fears he may not have the tools to respond to these future crises. t a time when Russia, Canada, Norway and other Arctic nations are scrambling to stake out turf in the still-frozen north, the United States' two most powerful icebreakers are moored in Seattle, nearing the end of their working lives.

One is manned by a skeleton crew. Both are about 30 years old, and nothing is on the drawing board to replace them.

"We have the responsibility for maritime safety, stewardship and security," said Allen, a graduate of Palo Verde High School in Tucson. "But how do you respond up there if you have no presence?" Allen and others are urging the U.S. government to prepare now for the changes global warming will bring to the Arctic. The nation needs to figure out how to protect American interests, handle disasters and enforce laws in a region that will still be ice-choked much of the year, he said.

EDIT

http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/203818

Shit, we couldn't do resource imperialism up there if we were openly trying to - no fleet to do the job!!

[NV Whino]

1. Umm, just a thought here, but

if the ice melts, you won't need icebreakers.

[hatrack]

2. Yeah, but eight months out of twelve, you still need a specialized ship

Still a lot of ice up there, though not as much as there once was, God knows . . .

[bullimiami]

3. thats the brilliant bush strategy pushing global warming. always 2 steps ahead.

[Bitwit1234]

4. The have them on the Great Lakes.

I know in the Minnesota area.

[phantom power]

5. Curses! We're reduced to resource imperialism between the arctic and antarctic circles!

[kestrel91316]

6. Not to worry. Bush is privatizing the Coast Guard and icebreaking, too,

right?

[NV Whino]

7. Naw, he's going to outsource both.

[n2doc]

8. When's the Blackwater icebreaker fleet showing up? n/t

[jpak]

11. The Russians beat 'em to it

The US now contracts Russian icebreakers to clear the ice channel to McMurdo Station Antarctica.

Our antiquated "breakers" break down too often...

[pitohui]

9. i for one welcome our canadian overlords EOM

/

[eppur_se_muova]

10. Let me guess ... we sent our icebreakers to Iraq ? ...

:eyes:

[tom_paine]

12. When we drill out that last 25% of the world's oil & gas underneath the Arctic

we will tip ourselves into the Unrecoverable Zone, almost certainly.

We are going to dig up the remains of ancient polar jungles...

...which will help make more polar jungles.

God has a sense of irony, doesn't she?