adn.com | environment : Coast Guard plans for Arctic base in Barrow
Just something I would share with everyone. The US government(not that I think its a bad thing) is putting itself in the best situation possible to exploit global warming and specifically the opening of a northwest passage. But that global warming nontheless. I will just point out that the town in question Barrow. Is on the very northern coast of Alaska. There is no colder place in America.
A Coast Guard reconnaissance team is heading to the far north this week to scope out a final frontier that is opening up to ship traffic in a warming Arctic climate.

The Coast Guard plans to set up an operations base in Barrow as early as next spring to monitor waters now free of ice for longer periods. Weather permitting, a scouting crew will fly the 1,183-mile trek from the northernmost U.S. town to the North Pole today.

"This is a new area for us to do surveillance," said Rear Adm. Arthur E. Brooks, commander of the Coast Guard's Alaska district. "We're going primarily to see what's there, what ships, if any, are up there."

Thinning ice has made travel along the northern coast increasingly attractive, said Brooks, who plans to accompany the crew in the C-130 flight. Tankers and even cruise ships are beginning to venture into the domain once traveled only by indigenous hunters and research vessels such as the Coast Guard icebreaker Healy.

The ice cap is believed to be warming faster than the rest of the world and shipping routes could become a reality in the Arctic much sooner than previously expected. Recent studies suggest that could happen in as little as a decade. Just a few years ago scientists predicted it would take a century for the ice to melt.

Another lure is the huge potential for resource