[Northwest Passage update]

Ocean Watch is the first of three boats coming from the west to chart a course for Peel Sound.
Today, Ocean Watch is again bound almost due north, to a long finger of water known as Peel Sound. We've been looking at the charts for Peel for months. In this ongoing era of climate change and melting ice, Peel Sound remains the primary obstacle for those hoping to transit the Northwest Passage in small boats. In 2007 and 2008, Peel opened up in mid-August and small yachts like ours skated right on through. The story is different in 2009. Old ice to the north was dislodged last spring and mixed in with new ice in Peel to form a rather imposing blockade to safe navigation.
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...some of the crew aboard the [270-foot icebreaker] Laurier apparently experienced similar misgivings after burning massive amounts of fuel, and then watching in surprise, en route to Fiona, as the 42-footer suddenly approached them, having extricated herself successfully from the ice. They were relieved for the crew, but it was pretty clear they would've appreciated a call.

Sailing the Northwest Passage: Ice floes and Inuit culture

Cambridge Bay, CANADA (CNN) -- Climate change has taken a short break in the Arctic this summer, leaving Silent Sound to sail through some heavy ice as we steer her for home before winter sets in.
This year hasn't seen the 'big melt' that many predicted at the beginning of the season.

Early predictions that 2009 would be another big melt are being proven wrong. Ice conditions have been heavier this summer than they were in 2007 and 2008.

Twitter / David Roberts

Oh Christ, the Chamber of Commerce wants to put climate change on trial. Literally. Self-parody much?

Flashback: Scientific Nuremberg Trials?

David Roberts is a blogger over at the green website Gristmill, which is associated with Grist, the online environmental magazine that bills itself as "Gloom and doom with a sense of humor®." On September 19, 2006, evidently fed up with climate change deniers, Roberts made an interesting suggestion for how to resolve scientific issues. To wit: "When we've finally gotten serious about global warming, when the impacts are really hitting us and we're in a full worldwide scramble to minimize the damage, we should have war crimes trials for these bastards—some sort of climate Nuremberg."