China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Arctic Weather and Climate Patterns
Published in Neloy Khare, Climate Change in the Arctic, 2022
R. S. Maheskumar, S Sunitha Devi
Arctic warming and its consequences have worldwide implications. Changes in the Arctic can influence the global climate through three primary mechanisms: The Sun’s energy reflected to space decreases as snow and ice melt, leading to a more intense surface warming. The melting of Arctic ice and increased regional precipitation can add fresh water to the oceans and potentially affect ocean currents. As warming progresses, more greenhouse gases could be released into the atmosphere by thawing the permafrost. However, warming can increase biological growth and, thus, the absorption of CO2. By 2100, the melting of Arctic glaciers alone will have contributed to a sea-level rise of roughly 5 cm out of the projected 10–90 cm total rise for this century (IPCC AR4 Projections). Melting of the Greenland ice sheet may increase this number significantly. Access to Arctic resources is likely to be affected by climate change, including wildlife – such as whales, seals, birds and fish sold on world markets – and oil, gas and mineral reserves. Arctic ecosystem changes will impact a global scale, notably by affecting migratory species’ summer breeding and feeding grounds.
Ramming induced ice loads between the ship bow and multiyear thick ice in Antarctic Weddell Sea
Published in C. Guedes Soares, Developments in the Collision and Grounding of Ships and Offshore Structures, 2019
L. Lu, P. Kujala, O.A. Valdez Banda, F. Goerlandt
The focuses on the Polar Regions are increasing gradually in recent years. Both the Antarctic and Arctic sea areas are receiving more and more ship visits. The interest to Arctic region is due primarily to the presence of natural resources (Frédéric, 2011), potential shipping routes, and tourism. Navigation activities in Antarctic initiated relatively long ago, starting from the explorations and fishing activities. Then, polar research and supply visits increased as well, as scientific interest in the Antarctic increased. Nowadays, tourism is also a quite popular activity and increases yearly. Ships entering into polar waters are very likely to meet ice conditions in various circumstances. Additionally, the low temperature also requires higher-class steel and structure (Bridge et al., 2018). Therefore, understanding the ice loads on the ship hull during the ship-ice interaction process is very important. It is also a vital step to avoid the unnecessary ice impact damage and further environmental damages to the sensitive regions.
Towards holistic performance-based conceptual design of Arctic cargo ships
Published in Pentti Kujala, Liangliang Lu, Marine Design XIII, 2018
M. Bergström, S. Hirdaris, O.A. Valdez Banda, P. Kujala, G. Thomas, K.-L. Choy, P. Stefenson, K. Nordby, Z. Li, J.W. Ringsberg, M. Lundh
The Arctic environment is sensitive to emissions and pollution. Using low flash point fuels (e.g. methanol) instead of conventional fuel oil such as Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) may lead to reduction of exhaust emissions. Low Flash Fuels (LFPFs) dissolve in water, are biodegradable and hence reduce the risk of environmental damage due to accidental spills (Ellis & Tanneberger, 2015). Whereas similar benefits can be obtained by using Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), LFPFs liquefy at room temperature and in this sense they may provide benefits over LNG in terms of fuel transportation and storage. The main risk in terms of using LFPFs on ships is that their flash point is below the minimum allowed safe flash point for marine fuels as specified by the IMO. This is why long-winded specialist approval is required.
Implications of Arctic shipping emissions for marine environment
Published in Maritime Policy & Management, 2022
Qiong Chen, Ying-En Ge, Adolf K.Y. Ng, Yui-yip Lau, Xuezong Tao
Pollutant emissions in the NSR are thus significantly greater than those in the NWP (see Figure 4(B)). Moreover, there is an annual upward trend due to the increased traffic level in the NSR. Alternatively, in the NWP, emissions have changed very little, irrespective of the type of pollution. If the level of SOX in 2015 is used as an example, the emissions of vessels in the Arctic Circle, the NSR and the NWP are 58.54 × 103 t, 5.79 × 103 t and 0.91 × 103 t, respectively (see Table 4). These results suggest that the NSR and NWP areas only generate 9.90% and 1.55% of the total emissions in the Arctic Circle. The remaining 88.7% are concentrated in the Norwegian and Barents Seas. Globally, Arctic emissions account for 0.60% of the total world emissions. Emissions from the NSR region accounted for only 0.06% of the total world emissions, and those from the NWP are even lower. Although the Arctic ecological environment is sensitive to maritime activities and the resulting emissions (Liang and Aherne 2019), these emissions to date have yet posed any notable impacts to the region. Moreover, emissions in the Arctic region are projected to be lower after the implementation of the IMO’s 2020 limit on global sulphur emissions. Accordingly, we do not anticipate these emissions to have any serious effects on the Arctic environment. If the environment is successfully protected, more vessels should be encouraged to navigate in the Arctic region. In fact, as shown in Zhu et al. (2018), under certain conditions, shipping along the NSR ‘can benefit from lower operational and environmental costs, which will lead to higher market and social welfare.’ Therefore, the development of the Arctic region need not necessarily be questioned negatively.