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https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...w-icebreaker-ships-patrol-arctic-will-n942236
"The United States has ignored the Arctic,” warned a congressman who supports icebreaker funding. “Control of the ocean will be ceded to Russia and China.”
The American icebreaker fleet is in a perilous state, with only two operational polar icebreakers. Equipped with strengthened hulls, they are charged with gathering scientific data, rescuing ships stuck in ice and responding to oil spills in the most remote parts of the globe. They also protect U.S. interests in the vast polar regions, where climate change is melting sea ice — opening the Arctic to new commercial opportunities while also raising military tensions.
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The melting Arctic ice sheet is opening up the long fabeled Northwest Passage to the Far East. And the Arctic has become valuable military space for the Russians & Canadians. But something is out of whack: we have 2 ice breakers & Russia has 40. Why are we building a purposeless wall instead of building new ice breakers?
"The United States has ignored the Arctic,” warned a congressman who supports icebreaker funding. “Control of the ocean will be ceded to Russia and China.”
The American icebreaker fleet is in a perilous state, with only two operational polar icebreakers. Equipped with strengthened hulls, they are charged with gathering scientific data, rescuing ships stuck in ice and responding to oil spills in the most remote parts of the globe. They also protect U.S. interests in the vast polar regions, where climate change is melting sea ice — opening the Arctic to new commercial opportunities while also raising military tensions.
==============================================
The melting Arctic ice sheet is opening up the long fabeled Northwest Passage to the Far East. And the Arctic has become valuable military space for the Russians & Canadians. But something is out of whack: we have 2 ice breakers & Russia has 40. Why are we building a purposeless wall instead of building new ice breakers?