Name: 加拿大的新航运快捷方式（Canada's New Shipping Shortcut）
Uploaded: 2021-06-10T12:56:23.000Z
Duration: 11 min 17 s
Description: 【看影片學英語】數萬部 YouTube 影片，搭配英漢字典即點即查，輕鬆掌握單字發音與用法，長久累積看電影不必再看字幕。

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The Arctic will be perhaps the single most influential region on earth in the coming

century and yet almost no-one even lives there.

Eight nations have territory above the Arctic Circle—Denmark though their constituent

country: Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, the United States, and Canada—and

This circle represents the distance a plane can fly in three hours.

Most of these countries can reach each other faster than they watch Titanic.

Anchorage, Alaska is, in fact, closer to Tromsø, Norway than it is to New York because of the

Alert, Canada is so close to Tromsø, Norway that it could be flown by a turboprop plane

The only issue is, there's about to be some serious money in the high north.

The Arctic ice is melting, there's no question about that.

Some may debate the cause of the melt, but one cannot debate that there's simply less

ice up north than there was 50 years ago.

Whole countries like Tuvalu and the Maldives could be largely underwater by the end of

the century because of the rising sea levels from melting ice.

But the melt has a different, more obvious effect—where there was once ice there's

One of the greatest quests for early explorers was to find a Northwest Passage—a navigable

sea route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the Canadian Archipelago.

It was long thought to be myth until in 1906 Roald Amundsen and his six crew members arrived

at Herchel Island, Canada, having successfully completed a three-year voyage from Norway

The significance of the Northwest Passage is that, until 1914 when the Panama Canal

opened, traffic from the Atlantic could only reach the Pacific by sailing around Cape Horn—the

This meant that a sea route between London and San Francisco—5,000 miles apart as the

It was a significant hamper to development to the American west coast.

The Northwest passage would've revolutionized maritime trade—if it wasn't covered in ice.

Roald Amundsen's ship, the Gjøa, was small enough that it could snake through and slide

Some of the waterways Amundsen took were as few as three feet deep—far too shallow for

the increasingly large commercial ships of the time.

More than 100 years later, in September of 2013, however, for the very first time, a

commercial bulk carrier, the MS Nordic Orion, transited an almost ice-free Northwest Passage

on its journey from Vancouver, Canada to Pori, Finland, and this was far from a publicity

This ship saved $80,000 in fuel costs and was able to take 25% more cargo than if it

Even thousand passenger cruise ships are now making the journey.

Ironically, global warming is actually opening a route that's better for the environment.

China is a country with a vested interest in the navigability of the northwest passage.

As an economy largely based on manufacturing for the western world, their maritime accessibility

has an enormous effect on their national wellbeing.

A reduction in time and cost of shipping to the American east coast would renew their

competitiveness in the manufacturing industry against emerging rivals such as Vietnam and

As China industrialized largely thanks to its manufacturing industry the standard of

living in the country increased which correspondently increased labour costs.

China's Maritime Safety Administration, recognizing the imminent explosion in usage,

recently published a 356 page guide to navigating the northwest passage and the country has

announced plans to send more and more commercial shipping traffic through the passage in the

The introduction of maritime traffic to the northwest passage could present a significant

The northern territories of Canada, through which northwest passage runs, are historically

Less than 120,000 people live in the Yukon, the Northwest territories, and Nunavut.

That's less than the population of Saguenay—a town small enough that you probably haven't

even heard of it—living in an area larger than the entire country of India.

It's not all that surprising considering just how inhospitable the area is, but other

places at similar latitudes such as Anchorage, Longyearbyen, and Murmansk have managed to

overcome the conditions thanks to the money that can be made in the far north.

If a large chunk of the worlds maritime traffic heads through the Canadian north, industry

Despite the general friendliness of most of the arctic countries, there are geopolitical

Even more surprisingly, one of them is between the US and Canada.

When there's a navigation choke-point restricting certain countries from accessing an ocean,

it's convention to declare that waterway an international waterway.

For example, the Danish Straits—fully surrounded by Denmark—are an international waterway

in order to give the Baltic and Scandinavian countries ocean access; the Turkish straits,

fully surrounded by Turkey, are international waterways to give the black sea countries

ocean access; and the Danube River is an international waterway to give landlocked Austria, Hungary,

Moldova, Serbia, and Slovakia ocean access.

When a waterway is declared an international waterway no country can restrict access or

charge dues to passing boats except during a time of war.

Canada considers the waterways comprising the northwest passage in their archipelago

In the past nobody challenged this since there was no reason anyone would cross through these

With its promise to cut shipping routes by thousands of miles, the northwest passage

will almost certainly become an important shipping route so that's why countries like

the US firmly believe that the northwest passage should be and already is an international

One of the tensest moments in history between the US and Canada was when, in 1985, a US

Coast Guard Icebreaker travelled through the northwest passage without prior permission

In Canada's mind, this was a military invasion of their sovereign territory—debatably an

Canada argues that the northwest passage is not an international waterway because it has

failed to meet an important criteria—usefulness.

Of course the northwest passage is useful on paper—it shortens the route between the