First, let’s get our bearings. Unlike the Northwest passage, which traverses the icy north above Canada, the Northeast passage is an entirely different route, shown on the map in red.
Source: UK Register graphic
From The Register: Also called the Northeast Passage or North Sea Passage, it’s a trade route that in summer months links the North European and Siberian ports to Asia, around the Arctic Circle. Orient-bound traffic heads east, then South via the Bering Strait. The route offers significant gains over the alternatives via Suez or the Cape, it’s shorter, quicker and cheaper. But until technological advances in the early 20th Century it was considered too hazardous for commercial operation.
The merchant ships MV Beluga Fraternity and MV Beluga Foresight arrived this week in Yamburg, Siberia. Ownership is Beluga Group Shipping Gmbh. From the company website: “During the passed days which led through the East Siberian Sea, the Sannikov Strait and the Vilkizki Strait as northernmost part the Beluga vessels were part of a little convoy behind the Russian Atomflot-ice breakers “50 let Pobedy” and “Rossia”.”.
Icebreaker & Merchant ship - from the company website
“We are all very proud and delighted to be the first western shipping company which has successfully transited the legendary Northeast-Passage and delivered the sensitive cargo safely through this extraordinarily demanding sea area”, Niels Stolberg said, President and CEO of Beluga Shipping GmbH, after the masters Captain Aleksander Antonov and Captain Valeriy Durov had notified that they had dropped anchor at their port of destination. “To transit the Northeast-Passage so well and professionally without incidents on the premiere trip is the result of our extremely thorough and accurate preparation as well as the outstanding team work between our attentive captains, our reliable meteorologists and our engaged crew”, said Stolberg.
One newspaper is making the most of this “first ever event”, according to a story in the UK Register:
The Times has liberally papered London underground carriages with a fascinating new ad campaign. One poster shows a ship navigating some treacherous icy waters, with the accompanying copy reading:
Climate change has allowed the Northeast Passage to be used as a commercial shipping route for the first time.
The Times advertisment
Impressive – if only it were true.
According to the ad copy:
To help you navigate the changing world we have more dedicated science and environment correspondents than the Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail or Independent.
Only one problem: The Northeast Passage has been opened for commerce since 1934 – and never ‘closed’.
Over the years hundreds of thousands of freighters have passed through, and after Russia put Soviet-era politics aside it was extended to foreign commerce in the 1990s. As the Register reported two weeks ago.
It’s a disaster all right, a disaster of bad journalism. I won’t mince words. It’s crap.
But we all know the MSM can’t get much right these days. My guess is that the MSM simply confused the difficult and almost always closed Northwest passage with the Northeast passage.
Bloggers once again were the leaders in discovering the real truth instead of paid journalists. Is it really so hard to use Google? For example the EU referendum had details and pictures of many previous transits of the Northeast passage. In this story, they show the history of this shipping lane.
Read the details of the latest failure of journalism turned advertising opportunity in the UK Register, here.
Thanks to Andrew Orlowski of the register for his assistance with this story.
===
Readers, especially those in the UK, I’d like to make a suggestion. Let the Times know they screwed up, not only for the journalistic failure, but also for the touting of the failure as advertising. Letters to the editor, letters to the managements, and to the advertising office might be a good start. If nobody calls them on it, they’ll never learn.
There’s also the UK Advertising Standards Authority, that works to keep advertising legal, decent, honest and truthful. The ad being run by the Times is failing most of those points. Here’s where you can complain:
The merchant ships MV Beluga Fraternity and MV Beluga Foresight arrived this week in Yamburg, Siberia. Ownership is Beluga Group Shipping Gmbh. From the company website: “During the passed days which led through the East Siberian Sea, the Sannikov Strait and the Vilkizki Strait as northernmost part the Beluga vessels were part of a little convoy behind the Russian Atomflot-ice breakers “50 let Pobedy” and “Rossia”.”.
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Harold Ambler
October 7, 2009 8:47 am
I brought all of this to Andy Revkin after he made the mistake of repeating the company propaganda about any kind of “first” here. I included multiple links detailing the extent of shipping traffic along the same route for the past several decades.
He declined to amend his story.
tallbloke
October 7, 2009 8:54 am
“Fabled arctic sea route”
Pity the journalism isn’t equally fabulous.
Fez Man
October 7, 2009 8:59 am
It must be nice to have a gig where you can do sloppy work, be dead wrong, and still be proud enough to put your name on it.
Is it any wonder that newspaper readership is declining?
This is just evidence of what the “Intelligentsia” at the world’s universities is calling an education these days. They spend all of their time indoctrinating our youth in liberal ideology and not teaching them what they need to know to operate in the real world.
If this were an isolated incident it would be one thing, but it’s not. So why do we continue to allow these idiots to run the world?
a jones
October 7, 2009 9:02 am
Already sent letter to Times days ago but not living in London didn’t know about the advertising so I will send another one.
Kindest Regards
wws
October 7, 2009 9:03 am
Anyone with a map who knew that Murmansk and Archangel’sk were important Soviet ports should have known this story was bogus.
Oh, that’s right, that cuts out most journo’s.
It is horrendously frustrating when the media , as they have always done , distort reality. This is a typical example of how the public perception can be manipulated.
I often hear arguments of how the fabled passage could only in modern times be negotiated on a regular basis but lacking in the arguments are of course modern ships.
There is no question of wooden ships breaking ice, that is not possible. The fact that modern steel reinforced 18 inch plus nuclear powered rowing boats can do it in the “modern climate” is lost on the MSM.
The simple fact that these wooden boats have traversed the passage in the past says it all.
savethesharks
October 7, 2009 9:06 am
Here is my comment on this one:
Hahahahahahaha.
I literally laughed out loud.
But the NE Passage opened in 1934. Hmmmm one of those early pre-CO2 warmest years in recorded history.
And this was still when all of the many vodka-cold Soviet temperature measurement stations were intact and without all the urban heat islands and Anthony’s airports.
I got it: Why doesn’t the IPCC file to make AGW officially retroactive to 1934!
Wouldn’t put it past them….
Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA
I am visiting Britain this week and the amount of green hand-wringing is enough to make any sane person cringe.
The Times may not have their facts right, but what they write seems to have broad appeal.
Interesting that the UK Conservative Party is beginning to campaign on a platform of ‘harsh reality’, in marked contrast to Labour who just want to tell people that everything will be all right as long as money gets thrown at it. I hope their willingness to convey reality to the masses includes some truth about climate change.
Kazinski
October 7, 2009 9:09 am
The Narrative is the larger truth, details like 70 years of previous transits just get in the way of the story and will confuse readers.
savethesharks
October 7, 2009 9:10 am
Rrrrrrriiiippppp!!
The sound of young Times interns hurriedly ripping papers off underground carriages all over London.
Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA
Espen
October 7, 2009 9:12 am
I was in London yesterday and those posters were really all over “the tube”. Are the Times journalists uneducated or just cynical?
Perception is a cause for emotional distress or glee. When a topic begins with a certain perception implied, the conversation is usually steered in the direction of the implied perception. Is this Science?
It’s not just the media – I recently went to a talk in my village addressed by a polar explorer who swore blind that it was a “myth” that the north-east passage was open before very recently.
David Jay
October 7, 2009 9:18 am
Espen:
YES!
Doug in Seattle
October 7, 2009 9:20 am
I recall back in the 1980’s when I lived in Vancouver BC seeing Soviet grain ships in the harbor that had ice breaker bows. I was told back then the Soviets used these ships to transport grain to Siberia and Europe via the NE Passage.
One of the Times stories linked to site in Britain called EUReferendum at http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2009/09/pictures-tell-story.html which tells the whole history of the Soviet usage of NE Passage
SJones
October 7, 2009 9:22 am
Halfwise, sorry to disappoint you but David Cameron and his Conservative Party are more onboard with AGW than even Labour. To quote their Green paper:
“decarbonising our economy will help us protect our environment for future generations. Just as the reckless accumulation of debt in our economy means higher taxes for the next generation; so the reckless accumulation of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere will impose costs on our children and their
children. Now that we know the scale of the risks we have created and are creating, it would be selfish, irresponsible and morally wrong not to act now to reduce our carbon emissions and do all we can to protect the future.”
The only good thing is that they will spend all their time arguing over Europe and ‘decarbonising’ the UK will take a back seat.
Henry chance
October 7, 2009 9:24 am
Historic!!!
Boudu
October 7, 2009 9:34 am
Sorry, those links were meant to be different ! Not quite sure what happened there.
Here are direct links to YouTube
Global Polar Ice September 09:
Global Polar Sea Ice Oct 2007 – Sep 2009:
Arctic Sea Ice Nov 1978 – Sep 2009:
Michael
October 7, 2009 9:43 am
Create the problem, Steer the reaction, Those who created the problem propose the solution. Manufacture cognitive dissonance. Do it over and over again.
This is the Hegelian Dialectic.
What is the Hegelian Dialectic? http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/05/dialectic.htm
Did my bit. I’ve made a complaint to the Ed of The Times and a formal complaint to the ASA. Hope all other Brits here are doing the same – it only took me a minute to fill in the ASA form.
william
October 7, 2009 9:51 am
A simple google search on “northeast passage” deleting the word “beluga” yields several links to books on Amazon that talk about the longstanding use of the Northeast Passage by the Soviets. Here is an example: http://books.google.com/books?id=zG7Xz5eEIIsC&dq=northeast+passage+shipping+volume+-beluga&source=gbs_navlinks_s
Shipping via this route is hardly news. What was news was that someone other than the Soviets used the route. So it was a first for “non-Soviet Commercial traffic”. It’s interesting to note that the shipping season is Aug 1 to Sept 15th. Winds and depths as shallow as 8M make this journey especially hazardous.
If I was a journalist it would sure be easy to google a story as a means to check it for accuracy.
Thanks
William
J.Hansford
October 7, 2009 9:51 am
Tony Halpin of “The Times”, may have been the writer of this unfortunate piece of journalistic underachievement…. Imagine not being able to understand the difference between NW Passage and NE Passage?…. Anyway, be that as it may, can I ask who the hell the editor was. Mr Magoo?
Imagine wasting your money advertising with them! May as well throw your advertising budget in the toilet.
Dan
October 7, 2009 10:01 am
superDBA (09:01:41
“This is just evidence of what the “Intelligentsia” at the world’s universities is calling an education these days. They spend all of their time indoctrinating our youth in liberal ideology and not teaching them what they need to know to operate in the real world.”
Everybody turn in your degrees if you went to a liberal arts college. You should have gone to a Conservative Arts College. Shame on you.
I brought all of this to Andy Revkin after he made the mistake of repeating the company propaganda about any kind of “first” here. I included multiple links detailing the extent of shipping traffic along the same route for the past several decades.
He declined to amend his story.
“Fabled arctic sea route”
Pity the journalism isn’t equally fabulous.
It must be nice to have a gig where you can do sloppy work, be dead wrong, and still be proud enough to put your name on it.
Is it any wonder that newspaper readership is declining?
This is just evidence of what the “Intelligentsia” at the world’s universities is calling an education these days. They spend all of their time indoctrinating our youth in liberal ideology and not teaching them what they need to know to operate in the real world.
If this were an isolated incident it would be one thing, but it’s not. So why do we continue to allow these idiots to run the world?
Already sent letter to Times days ago but not living in London didn’t know about the advertising so I will send another one.
Kindest Regards
Anyone with a map who knew that Murmansk and Archangel’sk were important Soviet ports should have known this story was bogus.
Oh, that’s right, that cuts out most journo’s.
It is horrendously frustrating when the media , as they have always done , distort reality. This is a typical example of how the public perception can be manipulated.
I often hear arguments of how the fabled passage could only in modern times be negotiated on a regular basis but lacking in the arguments are of course modern ships.
There is no question of wooden ships breaking ice, that is not possible. The fact that modern steel reinforced 18 inch plus nuclear powered rowing boats can do it in the “modern climate” is lost on the MSM.
The simple fact that these wooden boats have traversed the passage in the past says it all.
Here is my comment on this one:
Hahahahahahaha.
I literally laughed out loud.
But the NE Passage opened in 1934. Hmmmm one of those early pre-CO2 warmest years in recorded history.
And this was still when all of the many vodka-cold Soviet temperature measurement stations were intact and without all the urban heat islands and Anthony’s airports.
I got it: Why doesn’t the IPCC file to make AGW officially retroactive to 1934!
Wouldn’t put it past them….
Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA
I am visiting Britain this week and the amount of green hand-wringing is enough to make any sane person cringe.
The Times may not have their facts right, but what they write seems to have broad appeal.
Interesting that the UK Conservative Party is beginning to campaign on a platform of ‘harsh reality’, in marked contrast to Labour who just want to tell people that everything will be all right as long as money gets thrown at it. I hope their willingness to convey reality to the masses includes some truth about climate change.
The Narrative is the larger truth, details like 70 years of previous transits just get in the way of the story and will confuse readers.
Rrrrrrriiiippppp!!
The sound of young Times interns hurriedly ripping papers off underground carriages all over London.
Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA
I was in London yesterday and those posters were really all over “the tube”. Are the Times journalists uneducated or just cynical?
Dr. Roy Spencer has the latest UAH update: 0.42 C
http://www.drroyspencer.com/2009/10/september-2009-uah-global-temperature-update-0-42-deg-c/
Perception is a cause for emotional distress or glee. When a topic begins with a certain perception implied, the conversation is usually steered in the direction of the implied perception. Is this Science?
It’s not just the media – I recently went to a talk in my village addressed by a polar explorer who swore blind that it was a “myth” that the north-east passage was open before very recently.
Espen:
YES!
I recall back in the 1980’s when I lived in Vancouver BC seeing Soviet grain ships in the harbor that had ice breaker bows. I was told back then the Soviets used these ships to transport grain to Siberia and Europe via the NE Passage.
One of the Times stories linked to site in Britain called EUReferendum at http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2009/09/pictures-tell-story.html which tells the whole history of the Soviet usage of NE Passage
Halfwise, sorry to disappoint you but David Cameron and his Conservative Party are more onboard with AGW than even Labour. To quote their Green paper:
“decarbonising our economy will help us protect our environment for future generations. Just as the reckless accumulation of debt in our economy means higher taxes for the next generation; so the reckless accumulation of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere will impose costs on our children and their
children. Now that we know the scale of the risks we have created and are creating, it would be selfish, irresponsible and morally wrong not to act now to reduce our carbon emissions and do all we can to protect the future.”
The only good thing is that they will spend all their time arguing over Europe and ‘decarbonising’ the UK will take a back seat.
Historic!!!
Sorry, those links were meant to be different ! Not quite sure what happened there.
Here are direct links to YouTube
Global Polar Ice September 09:
Global Polar Sea Ice Oct 2007 – Sep 2009:
Arctic Sea Ice Nov 1978 – Sep 2009:
Create the problem, Steer the reaction, Those who created the problem propose the solution. Manufacture cognitive dissonance. Do it over and over again.
This is the Hegelian Dialectic.
What is the Hegelian Dialectic?
http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/05/dialectic.htm
Did my bit. I’ve made a complaint to the Ed of The Times and a formal complaint to the ASA. Hope all other Brits here are doing the same – it only took me a minute to fill in the ASA form.
A simple google search on “northeast passage” deleting the word “beluga” yields several links to books on Amazon that talk about the longstanding use of the Northeast Passage by the Soviets. Here is an example:
http://books.google.com/books?id=zG7Xz5eEIIsC&dq=northeast+passage+shipping+volume+-beluga&source=gbs_navlinks_s
Shipping via this route is hardly news. What was news was that someone other than the Soviets used the route. So it was a first for “non-Soviet Commercial traffic”. It’s interesting to note that the shipping season is Aug 1 to Sept 15th. Winds and depths as shallow as 8M make this journey especially hazardous.
If I was a journalist it would sure be easy to google a story as a means to check it for accuracy.
Thanks
William
Tony Halpin of “The Times”, may have been the writer of this unfortunate piece of journalistic underachievement…. Imagine not being able to understand the difference between NW Passage and NE Passage?…. Anyway, be that as it may, can I ask who the hell the editor was. Mr Magoo?
Imagine wasting your money advertising with them! May as well throw your advertising budget in the toilet.
superDBA (09:01:41
“This is just evidence of what the “Intelligentsia” at the world’s universities is calling an education these days. They spend all of their time indoctrinating our youth in liberal ideology and not teaching them what they need to know to operate in the real world.”
Everybody turn in your degrees if you went to a liberal arts college. You should have gone to a Conservative Arts College. Shame on you.