The melting Arctic icecap will drive what happens next. There will be many more ships trafficking the Arctic with commercial endeavors leading the list. First of all the melting ice will provide an ice free passage for shipping. Forget the Panama Canal when shipping to Asia from Northern Europe. No need to pay $1M a ship to go through the canal. Next of course is oil and gas exploration and development of those resources to feed our petroleum product addictions. Lastly, eco-tourism will become really big business as bigger and bigger ships make that sailing.
Check out this Brookings video on Artic Issues that summarize some of the above.
Then of course with all that activity above there will be emergency management issues to contend with. Search and rescue, collisions between ships, and oil spills from either the collisions or accidents that come with drilling for and exploiting the natural resources in the region are all issues that will need to be dealt with.
What complicates any disaster response is our lack of resources that are in proximity to the Artic. Deep water ports will be need to be established along with response resources. When you think about a strategic plan for the US Coast Guard it has to include readiness for having a full time presence in the Artic. The time and distance that the Artic presents is a huge obstacle to having effective responses.
A good first start would be building a modern icebreaker fleet of ships that match the capability of what other Artic Nations already have in place today. When it comes to the Artic—we are way behind the power curve!
