Last summer, ice in the Arctic reached new levels of . . . non-existence. That is, the extent of polar ice receded.
And some of you got alarmed.
But some other folks got excited by a new Northwest Passage.
Quark Expeditions charges many thousands of dollars to tour the Arctic on the icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov. Alas, a May tour from the Bering Sea across the north of Canada turned out to be no picnic. The mammoth ship got stalled. In ice.
Lots of ice.
They were stalled for seven days.
A polar bear entertained the passengers early on, but tensions rose as the days of going nowhere piled up. According to the fascinating story in Canada’s Globe and Mail, the hoped-for Northwest Passage is still very “unpredictable.”
It’s barely passage at all, after this last winter, which was brutally cold . . . nearly everywhere. Yes, new records of coldness helped re-establish northern ice.
The winter thumbed its nose at global warming, a sort of global nanny nanny boo-boo.
What can I say? Seasons go in cycles. The same seems to go for the climate in general. Hedge your bets for “unstoppable global warming,” folks. And if you are on Quark’s planned June 28 departure for a north-of-Siberia cruise this summer, hoping to view, up close, the New Siberian Islands and other, uh, hot spots of the Arctic, keep your cool.
Nature might, too.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.