[u]North-West Passage is now plain sailing[/u]
The North-West Passage – the sea route running along the Arctic coastline of North America, normally perilously clogged with thick ice – is nearly ice-free for the first time since records began.
For just one time I would take the Northwest passage,
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea,
Tracing one warm line through a land so wide and savage,
And make a Northwest passage to the sea.
Good for bidniss. 
djm
Really. I hope the people who are excited about having some new cargo routes realize that there could eventually be some problems with cargoes—like people might start having trouble growing what they are used to growing or making what they used to make or even living where they used to live. It could take awhile to sort it all out.
Lake Superior is down by a foot. I guess it’s the lowest in 88-years. That’s a lot of water that isn’t there.
It’s a good thing this “global warming” stuff is just a myth. A report like this would make me nervous if it was all true.
A shame that Stan Rogers didn’t live long enough to see it.
Book passage before it re-ices. Because it will.
Does any country, other than Canada, have as an unofficial national anthem, a song about how exciting and heroic it would be to find a way for tourists to avoid passing through it?
I truly hope you are right!
at least for a few more years 
That’s only the first verse. The second is about crossing Canada overland, or at least over river.
Three centuries thereafter, I take passage overland
In the footsteps of brave Kelso, where his “sea of flowers” began
Watching cities rise before me, then behind me sink again
This tardiest explorer, driving hard across the plain.
And through the night, behind the wheel, the mileage clicking west
I think upon Mackenzie, David Thompson and the rest
Who cracked the mountain ramparts and did show a path for me
To race the roaring Fraser to the sea.
I’m writing this from about three miles upriver from the spot where the Fraser meets the sea.
It really ought to be our anthem, you know. It’s miles better than Oh Canada. It would be really cool to have an anthem with a chorus built to be harmonised.
Incidentally, in my lifetime, they’ve changed the official lyrics to Oh Canada about three times, and never once have the ever fixed what’s really wrong with it–the dirge melody.
I feel your pain s1m0n. ‘Advance Australia Fair’ is so dorky. And those who learn the words wish they hadn’t. ‘Our land is girt by sea.’ Oh wow; that’s impressive. Better than being girt by … eh .. something else.
Actually ‘North West Passage’ is a great song and Rogers’ version of it really stirring.
The American anthem has these memorable lines:
The American anthem has these memorable lines:
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I could never understand why so many people were opposed to changing the US anthem to America the Beutiful. Maybe they’ve never experienced the “amber waves of grain” or “purple mountain’s majesty”
Ay, mun, wud ees wrong wid “José, can djew see”, mun? Anyway, ees no my chob.
djm
I don’t question that the Earth is warming up. It is just the interminable insistence by everyone that is is solely MAN that is causing the warming.
Bullocks.
Been there, done that, likely MANY times.
What I have understood is that most scientists now think that the Earth is warming up more quickly than it has in past warming-up times. Let’s say, for the sake of argument which I don’t plan to pursue beyond this, that the activities of MAN have nothing to do with the current warming up. Do you not feel that a rapid warming up of the Earth is something to be concerned about given the possible effects on just about every aspect of our lives? Even if MAN did not cause it or contribute to it, isn’t rapid warming up sort of scary since crops, water levels, sea currents, ice melting, water evaporating, I don’t know, all sorts of things will be affected by changes in climate. Whole economies are dependent on crops which may not be able to be grown because of drought or too much rain. If the climate changes quickly, adaptation by flora and fauna through the process of natural selection will not be able to take place. Flora and fauna species will not be able to adapt quickly and will die. We depend on many species for our survival. I don’t know. I am a worrier and I do feel quite worried about all this. If there is something scientists think we can do or not do that MIGHT help, I feel like there is not much to lose myself.
I don’t deny that anything you say is not to be of concern. It was not the intention of my comment to deny or address any of that. Those are ALL very pertinent concerns which I am afraid science is not in a position to address.
What gets my goat is how business and government is trying to rip us off with taxes and regulations that are costing us millions (Billions?) of dollars that will ultimately have little or no affect on the situation. They justify this by claiming humans are the sole, or at least the major cause of the events transpiring.
I quit before the Political Police lock me up.