Okay, Chelsea, no option on this one. I think
this is something that should be known by pretty
much everybody that I don't think anybody really
has seen yet. Okay. I know this kind of just
slipped by. It's not that old. So this article
comes from Reuters on October 14th, 2025. Written
by, it says Reuters, but that seems like somebody
who can't write. But that's what it says. Article
title. Chinese freighters have EU delivery time
on maiden Arctic voyage to UK. This comes from
the Beijing office on October 14th of Reuters.
A Chinese container ship has completed a pioneering
journey through the Arctic to a UK port, state
-run news agency Xinhua reported, cutting in
half the usual transit time for the electric
vehicles and solar panels aboard destined for
Europe. The Istanbul Bridge's maiden voyage,
originally expected to take 18 days, was delayed
by two days due to a storm off the coast of Norway,
but the ship still reached Europe earlier than
the 40 -50 days it takes freighters going through
the Suez Canal or around the Cape of Good Hope.
The new northern route, running entirely through
Arctic waters and within Russia's exclusive economic
zone, can now be navigated by ships due to global
warming. china is exploring speedier maritime
links with the european union the world's third
largest economy while in the middle of a costly
trade war with the united states the world's
biggest consumer market The push reflects Beijing's
need to diversify its export market to sustain
growth in an economy heavily dependent on selling
its manufactured goods overseas. Exports to Europe
rose an annual 14 % in September. Chinese customs
data shows while shipments to the US fell 27
% over the same period. Over the past four decades,
the Arctic has warmed about four times faster
than the global average, resulting in a dramatic
reduction in sea ice and creating seasonal windows
for commercial shipping. but weather and sailing
conditions along the Arctic Passage can be unpredictable.
Carrying about 4 ,000 containers from the Chinese
port of Zhaoshan, the Istanbul Bridge docked
in Felixstowe? I have no idea. Britain's largest
container port. How do I have a harder time with
the English port than the Chinese port? It's
so tricky. On Monday, Anne was scheduled to make
stops in Germany, Poland, and Netherlands, and
Xinhua said, The ship is operated by Chinese
-controlled container line Sea Legend, it said,
and the company did not immediately respond to
a Reuters request for comment. In recent years,
Beijing has deepened maritime cooperation with
Russia in Arctic waters as China seeks an alternative
shipping route to reduce its dependence on the
Strait of Malacca in Southeast Asia. Now, Chelsea,
the reason I wanted to talk about this, because
there's a ton of implications in this. The first
in... biggest one is that this is a very real,
very tangible experience of global warming. Yeah,
it sounds like it. This is something that has
always been shut off as a way you can ship because
the sea ice has always been blocking it. I wanted
to make sure that I wasn't misunderstanding.
No, that's the biggest thing, like why it's such
a big deal that this has happened. Yeah. But
geopolitically, this is huge for a bunch of different
reasons. One, if this opens up, all of this is
going to go through Russian territory, Russian
Ocean territory, which is huge. Yeah. Is that
something that people necessarily want right
now? What is going on politically with Russia
right now? I guess that's what you're saying.
Well, not necessarily, but this gives Russia
huge power if this is something that China wants
to explore. And guess what? China does want to
explore it because pretty much all of its trade
goes through, like they said, the Strait of Malacca,
which I think is right beside Singapore. And
it's like a super narrow area of land that is
controlled by other countries that could shut
it off if they wanted to. And not to mention
that, like they said, even if they wanted to
go the normal route, this is about a third the
time or a half the time of the normal route to
get to Europe. Yeah, I mean, when you say it
that way, I mean, profit over people, right?
Whatever's the easiest. Everything. It doesn't
matter what that other word is. Profit over,
just insert any word you want. Profit over literally
anything. And it's such an interesting article
for discussion because not only the politics,
but obviously global warming. Warming is coming
into play with it. And I think even environmentally,
along with global warming, is what is it going
to do to the marine life up there and the oceans
where it's been basically untouched for how long?
And what are the implications? It's kind of untouched
because there's a few things that the Russians
were doing up there, particularly during the
Cold War, what's a nuclear subs that have really
damaged the until now frozen environment. So
it could be kind of contained, which is cool.
to be a bit of a disaster we have to talk about
but also too you make a fine point arctic wildlife
is not used to having to deal with boats so like
the elusive narwhal the unicorn of the sea it's
never had to battle um i shouldn't say battle
but it's never had to take up the same space
as a cargo ship yeah and i even wonder if say
um this might even end up being like the next
cruise destination that's exactly what i was
thinking yeah the post -arctic cruise i mean
cruiser yes probably i would not doubt it though
you won't find a lot of cruises going to russia
right now but cruises equally as much threaten
the marine life just as much as you know, like
every other ship. Yeah. And if anything, they
kind of pollute a lot more because they're not
carrying cargo to take off. They're carrying
people which come with their own chemical. I
guess. Yeah, I guess so. They call it gray water.
I think that's the nice word for it. I mean,
that's only one of the things that we talked
about, but yes. Yeah. So, and that's not going
to help global warming in the least part. And
I don't know how much it's happened where oceans
are opening up because of, I know whales were
being able to hunt in places that they weren't
before that we've covered, but now we're getting
cargo ships going to places. They're hunting
in territories they could not hunt. before. Yeah,
yeah, exactly. So that's also something that's
pretty new and unique to the situation that an
implication of global warming as well. So it's
not going to be great. And it could probably
even fast track what's already happening to speed
things up because yeah, and that's even in those
areas. And even without talking about like the
pollution of the cargo ship, that means we're
one step closer to what's called a blue ocean
event. where we no longer have ice reflecting
heat away from the planet, and instead a full
balloon absorbing all the heat coming to the
planet, which is a compounding factor that would
just absolutely exponentially cause more global
warming. Yeah, which you would assume would fast
track it if it's already opening up for ships
to go there. Scary stuff. Yeah. And I guess,
I don't know. Don't think about it too much other
than, I don't know, maybe the geopolitical sides
of it. Because yeah, man, we're all kind of fucked.
Anyhow, you got 48 hours. Don't think about it.
Bye. Until what? Bye.