Russian Gas Tanker’s Arctic Ice Voyage Branded ‘Irony Of Our Time’
David Vetter
David Vetter
Senior Contributor
Sustainability FORBES
I cover green energy and sustainability
Feb 24, 2021
The Arctic tanker Christophe de Margerie, operated by Sovcomflot, in the Gulf of Ob, the Kara Sea. ALEXANDER RYUMIN/TASS
This month, for the first time in history, a commercial gas tanker travelled from China to northwestern Russia through Arctic winter ice, an event U.K. climate experts have told Forbes.com was made possible by man-made global warming.
That the vessel in question, the Christophe de Margerie, was named after the former CEO of French oil corporation Total and was carrying liquified natural gas (LNG), added a grim irony to the event, the experts said.
The Russian LNG carrier sailed from Jiangsu in China to the remote Arctic terminal of Sabetta on the remote Yamal peninsula in Russia. Until this year such a journey had not been possible, as thick, “multi-year” ice, meaning ice that lasts two years or more, blocked the passage of commercial ships.
“The fact that this ship went to Yamal to collect fossil fuels is of course an irony of our time, filled with symbolism,” said Marc Macias-Fauria, associate professor in physical geography at the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford. “Sea ice volume and thickness have declined precipitously during the last decades. From this point of view, it is only logical to expect that the Arctic Basin will become more accessible to navigation with global and regional warming, and sea ice loss.
Sustainability FORBES
I cover green energy and sustainability
Feb 24, 2021
The Arctic tanker Christophe de Margerie, operated by Sovcomflot, in the Gulf of Ob, the Kara Sea. ALEXANDER RYUMIN/TASS
This month, for the first time in history, a commercial gas tanker travelled from China to northwestern Russia through Arctic winter ice, an event U.K. climate experts have told Forbes.com was made possible by man-made global warming.
That the vessel in question, the Christophe de Margerie, was named after the former CEO of French oil corporation Total and was carrying liquified natural gas (LNG), added a grim irony to the event, the experts said.
The Russian LNG carrier sailed from Jiangsu in China to the remote Arctic terminal of Sabetta on the remote Yamal peninsula in Russia. Until this year such a journey had not been possible, as thick, “multi-year” ice, meaning ice that lasts two years or more, blocked the passage of commercial ships.
“The fact that this ship went to Yamal to collect fossil fuels is of course an irony of our time, filled with symbolism,” said Marc Macias-Fauria, associate professor in physical geography at the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford. “Sea ice volume and thickness have declined precipitously during the last decades. From this point of view, it is only logical to expect that the Arctic Basin will become more accessible to navigation with global and regional warming, and sea ice loss.
Macias-Fauria said that human-caused climate change leading to higher temperatures was the dominant trend causing sea ice decline measured in recent decades. “This is a first,” he said, and while the voyage “does not mean that the conditions found will remain within the year-to-year and intra-year variability ... it signals the consequences of a very clear trend in the Arctic Ocean towards less sea ice.”
The ship’s owner, Sovcomflot, presented the voyage as a triumph, with the Moscow Times and the Barents Observer describing the event as “historic” and “historical,” respectively.
“The current voyage of Christophe de Margerie significantly expands the navigation window in the eastern sector of the Russian Arctic, and confirms that year-round safe navigation is possible along the entire length of the Northern Sea Route,” Sovcomflot CEO Igor Tonkovidov said of the journey.
The Russian nuclear powered icebreaker 50 Let Pobedy
The ship’s owner, Sovcomflot, presented the voyage as a triumph, with the Moscow Times and the Barents Observer describing the event as “historic” and “historical,” respectively.
“The current voyage of Christophe de Margerie significantly expands the navigation window in the eastern sector of the Russian Arctic, and confirms that year-round safe navigation is possible along the entire length of the Northern Sea Route,” Sovcomflot CEO Igor Tonkovidov said of the journey.
The Russian nuclear powered icebreaker 50 Let Pobedy
[50th Anniversary of Victory] accompanied
the ... [+] ALEXANDER RYUMIN/TASS
But Samantha Buzzard, a lecturer in climate science at Cardiff University’s School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, said the voyage was concerning for a number of reasons.
“The polar regions act like a giant cooler for the whole planet,” Buzzard said. “While there are dire local consequences to sea ice loss, for example the impact on wildlife such as polar bears, the impacts aren’t just limited to the Arctic.”
She explained that polar ice reflects a lot of the Sun’s energy away from earth. When the open ocean instead absorbs that energy, it causes changes to ocean temperature and circulation that can lead to changes in the global climate. “The loss of our multi-year ice is especially concerning as being much thicker it’s more resilient to change,” she added.
But Samantha Buzzard, a lecturer in climate science at Cardiff University’s School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, said the voyage was concerning for a number of reasons.
“The polar regions act like a giant cooler for the whole planet,” Buzzard said. “While there are dire local consequences to sea ice loss, for example the impact on wildlife such as polar bears, the impacts aren’t just limited to the Arctic.”
She explained that polar ice reflects a lot of the Sun’s energy away from earth. When the open ocean instead absorbs that energy, it causes changes to ocean temperature and circulation that can lead to changes in the global climate. “The loss of our multi-year ice is especially concerning as being much thicker it’s more resilient to change,” she added.
A Disaster In The Making?
Buzzard said she was doubly concerned by the voyage as the presence of tankers in the previously unnavigable region could result in ecological disasters, including oil spills. “Although the tanker in this case was carrying liquified natural gas, if crude oil were to be transported on this route then the consequences of a spill could be catastrophic,” she said. “An event like that would be totally unprecedented.”
Martin Siegert, professor and co-director of The Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London, told Forbes.com: “Thirty years ago, the area to the west of the Bering Strait, close to the Siberian coast, would have regularly held multi-year sea ice.” Sea ice can last as long as four years, Siegert said, but tends not to get older, as currents and gyres sweep it into regions that either melt or break up the ice.
“With climate warming, which is two to three times magnified in the Arctic because the loss of the reflective ice surface ... much more melting is occurring, leading to less sea ice,” he said. “The reflectivity feedback means less sea ice leads to less sea ice, but there is another feedback in place also: as the sea ice is lost, the wind is able to form large waves, where none would be possible before, and these can act to break up the sea ice further.”
“So it seems that the Arctic—in summer time especially—is becoming less conductive to sea ice than it ever was in human history.”
Buzzard said she was doubly concerned by the voyage as the presence of tankers in the previously unnavigable region could result in ecological disasters, including oil spills. “Although the tanker in this case was carrying liquified natural gas, if crude oil were to be transported on this route then the consequences of a spill could be catastrophic,” she said. “An event like that would be totally unprecedented.”
Martin Siegert, professor and co-director of The Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London, told Forbes.com: “Thirty years ago, the area to the west of the Bering Strait, close to the Siberian coast, would have regularly held multi-year sea ice.” Sea ice can last as long as four years, Siegert said, but tends not to get older, as currents and gyres sweep it into regions that either melt or break up the ice.
“With climate warming, which is two to three times magnified in the Arctic because the loss of the reflective ice surface ... much more melting is occurring, leading to less sea ice,” he said. “The reflectivity feedback means less sea ice leads to less sea ice, but there is another feedback in place also: as the sea ice is lost, the wind is able to form large waves, where none would be possible before, and these can act to break up the sea ice further.”
“So it seems that the Arctic—in summer time especially—is becoming less conductive to sea ice than it ever was in human history.”
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