XVI. Tell your partner about the Arctic

Canada well behind Russia in race to claim Arctic seaways and territory

MURMANSK, RUSSIA – An Arctic winter storm is a vision of terror for seamen: hurricane force winds battering heaving decks encased in thick ice, an ordeal that can drag on for days cloaked in darkness.

So far north, rescue teams are usually a very distant hope.

The sinking of a Russian oil rig Sunday in a howling gale off the coast of Sakhalin, on Russia's Far East coast, left 53 crew members confirmed dead or lost at sea, and added a new chapter to the harrowing lore of Arctic navigation.

Yet as the Arctic climate warms, and vast polar ice sheets melt, international shipping companies are eagerly eyeing two routes across the top of the world – one along Russia’s northern coast, the other through waters claimed by Canada.

Russia has a decades-long lead in controlling its Arctic coast. If Canada doesn't catch up in claiming territory, the country may not have the power to decide who navigates the Northwest Passage through a sweeping archipelago of more than 19,000 Canadian islands.

Losing control over access to the waterway could cost Canada any chance of profiting from escort fees and other tolls if climate change permanently opens the meandering route through often tight channels.

Northerners say Arctic storms, which can blow for weeks, have been getting stronger and more frequent in recent years, and climate experts warn that is likely to become a long-term trend if average temperatures continue to climb.

That jacks up the stakes in the competition to draw international shipping into the Arctic and away from the old warm water shortcuts between Europe and Asia – the Panama and Suez canals.

By far, the most developed Arctic passage is Russia’s Northern Sea Route, which cuts almost a third off the journey between East Asia and Europe through the Suez Canal, a transit that has marked the global economy's pulse for decades.

The Suez is a growing headache for shippers, with near constant risks of political trouble and unrest, pirates and other hazards that add steep insurance costs to the long list of fees that Egypt and various agents charge.

More than 17,000 vessels paid Egypt's government a total of $4.7 billion last year for the privilege of avoiding the longer haul around the southern tip of Africa.

Russia is eagerly rebuilding its Northern Sea Route to take as much as it can of that action.

Ships carried a record 757,400 tonnes of freight through the route this year, mostly natural gas, iron ore and fish products, according to Russia’s transport ministry.

Foreign vessels accounted for 88.7 per cent of that total through the passage, which was open more than 141 days, longer than last year by a whole month and setting a record for an Arctic shipping season.

Russia’s great ambitions for its Arctic sea lane include a federal agency to collect the transit fees, said Anton Vasiliev, Russia's ambassador at large for Arctic issues.

By the end of the decade, Russia expects up to 59 million tonnes of cargo to pass through the route, with another 30 per cent surge by 2030, Vasiliev said.

Increasingly, that cargo will include crude oil carried in supertankers, which environmental activists fear will be too vulnerable to breaking up in the Arctic's crushing ice and storms.

Murmansk, the largest city anywhere in the Arctic, celebrates its 100th anniversary next year and the Kremlin is planning to make it the hub of a re­energized transportation network.

Murmansk alone expects to receive $10 billion in public and private investment by 2019 for improvements to railways, a renovated airport, new port facilities for cargo and tourist cruise ships, oil and natural gas facilities, and other projects.

“I can tell you for sure that with Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, this is not an issue of whether we should develop the north,” said Evgeniy Nikora, speaker of the Murmansk region’s legislature and a Putin ally.

“Definitely, all of the necessary decisions have been taken at the federal level for development of the Arctic in Russia. Now, we can instead talk about the competition between Russia's Arctic regions, as to which can be more attractive to investment.”

Having something to contribute to the success of the Northern Sea Route is one of the best ways to attract the Kremlin's attention and financial backing.

Sometimes called the Northeast Passage, the route runs through Russia’s coastal territory and has been under Moscow’s undisputed control since the Soviets opened it to commercial shipping in the early 1930s.

Canada lays claim to a possible rival, the legendary Northwest Passage, which only saw its first foreign commercial ship transit in the fall of 2008, a cargo vessel that sailed from Montreal with supplies for four hamlets in Nunavut.

Powerful maritime nations, including the U.S. and members of the European Union, consider the Northwest Passage an international strait open to any who want to risk navigating the ice and narrow channels. But Canada wants to control access.

That’s a costly proposition because, unlike Russia, Canada doesn't have anything close to the Arctic infrastructure that's needed, such as ports, 24-hour rescue stations and an ice-class fleet required to patrol the passage.

Canada's Arctic weakness was obvious to former French Prime Minister Michel Rocard when he took a six-day Arctic trip on the Coast Guard icebreaker CCGS Amundsen in August.

Rocard, France’s ambassador to international negotiations on the Arctic and the Antarctic, called Canada “too small to finance itself the infrastructure” needed to make the Northwest Passage a viable shipping lane.

“I have the impression that Canada has given up on the competition to attract a large part of the traffic in 25 or 30 years,” Rocard said after his ride on the Amundsen.

In 2006, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government didn’t sound very enthusiastic about the potential for the Northwest Passage when Ottawa declared its northern strategy.

“Although the Northwest Passage is not expected to become a safe or reliable transportation route in the near future, reduced ice coverage and longer periods of navigability may result in an increased number of ships undertaking destination travel for tourism, natural resource exploration or development,” the government said.

By contrast, Putin has staked nothing less than his country’s economic future on the Arctic, and rebuilding the Northern Sea Route is a pillar of his national security strategy.

Vocabulary

well behind – далеко позади

race – гонка, состязание

claim – заявлять права, предъявлять претензии

vision – вид, зрелище

batter – разрушать, сильно бить, месить

heave – подниматься, вздыматься

encased – закованный, обрамлённый

ordeal [ɔ:′di:l] – 1) суровое испытание

drag on – тянуться

cloak – скрывать, маскировать

sink (sank, sunk) – тонуть

oil rig – нефтяная платформа

howl – выть, завывать, реветь

gale – буря, шторм

confirm – подтверждать

chapter – глава

harrowing – горестный, трагический

lore – cведения, профессиональные знания

sheet – 1) лист 2) слой, покров

eagerly – энергично, активно, горячо, пылко

eye – рассматривать

catch up (caught, caught) – зд. преуспеть

sweeping – широкий, с большим охватом

profiting – получение прибыли

′escort – проводка судов

es′cort – конвоировать, сопровождать

fee – оплата, гонорар

tall – пошлина, право взимания пошлины

permanently – постоянно, долговременно

meander [mi′ændǝ] – извиваться (о дороге и пр.)

tight – тесный, трудный, плотный

channel – пролив, фарватер

trend – тенденция

climb – подниматься

jack up – оставить, бросить

stake – 1) ставка, делать ставку 2) веха, кол

draw (drew, drawn) – привлекать, тянуть, тащить

shortcut – укороченный путь

by far – явно, безоговорочно, общепризнанно

shipper – грузоотправитель

hazard – риск, опасность

steep – 1) непомерно высокий 2) крутой

insurance – страховка

charge – назначать цену, просить

haul – перевозка, ездка, рейс, волочение

tip – 1) верхушка 2) оконечность

eagerly – сильно, энергично

ambition – стремление, цель

lane – морской путь

at large – подробно, во всём объёме

surge – большой подъём

increasingly – всё больше и больше

crude oil – сырая нефть

vulnerable – уязвимый, подверженный

breaking up – разлом, разрушение

crushing – сокрушительный

hub – 1) центр 2) пуп

re-energized – вновь возрождённый

legislature – законодательная власть

ally – союзник

instead – вместо этого

attractive – привлекательный

backing – поддержка

undis′puted – неоспоримый

lay (laid, laid) – предъявлять

rival – соперник

hamlet – деревня, деревушка

pat′rol – патрулировать, надзирать

obvious – очевидный

viable – жизнеспособный

give up – сдаваться

ride – поездка

destination – цель, назначение

pillar – опора, оплот

 

Exercises

I. Repeat the words after the teacher:

or′deal, rescue, howling, lore, eyeing, archi′pelago, ′escort, me′andering, Panama, Suez, headache, ′hazards, insurance, agency, ′legislature, undis′puted, legendary, pat′rol, ambassador, re-energized, enthusiastic, strategy.

 

II. Read and translate the international words:

territory, Arctic, navigation, decade, archipelago, climate, temperature, pirate, agent, privilege, action, natural, ambition, federal, activist, tourist, project, region, finance, commercial, legendary, infrastructure, enthusiast, strategy, period.