Saturday, July 5, 2008

All aboard for a collision-free sea trip (cold version)

Without trying to talk-up another Titanic episode, disengagement of icebergs from the Antarctic icemass must be thought of as a more-frequent occurence with climate change/global warming on the move (and on everyone's lips). Whether this means a raising of vessel collision likelihood through the northward drift (if that's on the cards) of loose bergs is one for the polar scientists, maybe. One could scarcely claim that passenger-vessel traffic in the Southern Ocean is comparable with that in most of the other oceans. And polar flights from e.g. the southern tip of Australia are under way. Nonetheless, the tracking of icebergs in the 85 - 50 degree latitude band may well become more of a need as the years pass. It would be easy to assert that bergs would melt south of a point where they become a danger to shipping (what a waste of fresh water!) but such would perhaps depend on the direction and strength of cold currents. Who knows what hi-tech wizardry might be employed these days to exercise surveillance. The writer will have to be satisfied with a periodic search of Google Earth.

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