Comments on: Arctic Blimps and Stealth Snowmobiles. Is There Something You’d Like to Share With Us, Canada?

By: kali

kali — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 19:16:42 +0000

I’d rather have ‘lighter than air’ transport than ice breakers which just exacerbate the melting polar ice cap problem (broken ice does melt faster than whole ice). Go Canada!

By: The Real Johnson

The Real Johnson — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 17:40:03 +0000

@JMW – Yeah, I’m sure the aeronautical engineers who designed them forgot to think about wind.

By: JSC

JSC — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 17:35:40 +0000

“No northern neighbors”…come again? It might not be “North” on a flat map poster but our Northern borders and more importantly an expanding sea, shared with the likes of Russia, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Greenland. It’s also not a stretch to include the UK in on that as the North Sea connects to the Arctic Ocean. This same ocean, which has a lot less ice covering it thanks to climate change, is becoming increasingly more difficult to protect. We’re also looking at an estimated 20-30% of the world’s undiscovered Natural Gas and anywhere from 10-15% of the world’s undiscovered oil.

The overall ignorance of this article is astonishing. May as well have been titled “No doot aboot it! Here comes the Canadians in their snowmobiles, airships and maple syrup tanks eh?” Would be better suited to some uneducated teenager’s myspace account.

By: Amos Zeeberg (Discover Web Editor)

Amos Zeeberg (Discover Web Editor) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 17:14:55 +0000

Just an FYI: I deleted a bunch more comments from our sagacious readers about how Celsius and Fahrenheit “cross” at -40. We’re tuning our spam filter—recently had a new generation of smarter spam breaking through—and a bunch of comments were hung up in moderation for a spell. Since none were yet visible, people left about a hundred comments saying the same thing. Which seemed a little excessive.

By: seventhrowscreamer

seventhrowscreamer — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 16:41:55 +0000

How much Elsinore beer can one of those things carry?

By: jack

jack — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 16:30:26 +0000

@phanmo: Good one!
@Kennit: It’s the same temp on both!

By: peicurmudgeon

peicurmudgeon — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 16:09:35 +0000

@ John Seems like they are gearing up for the Resource Wars and the battle for the Artic.

@JMW US, Denmark, Iceland, & Russia.

These are correct. The other factor is proclaiming the “Northwest Passage” as an internal Canadian waterway rather than international waters. the melting of the polar icecap, this is becoming a pressing matter. Up here the catch phrase is “Arctic Sovereignty”.

By: KingOfArcadia

KingOfArcadia — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 15:24:43 +0000

Yeah, not 100% sure but I believe this is the Canadian government’s somewhat odd attempt at declaring & defending our Arctic sovereignty. I think the idea is to show that we do have a claim to our Arctic lands before someone else (the US & Russia) decide to try and claim a stake of it – and I’m all for that. But really… stealth snowmobiles?

By: JFC

JFC — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 15:16:02 +0000

@Phanmo

I see what you did there. Well played.

By: Jack

Jack — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 14:46:25 +0000

The article derides the new airships for looking ‘blimpy’, but fails to consider the relative merits of such a craft. Fuel efficient, relatively low tech (read: simple, for use in really nasty climates), capable of hauling massive tonnage, requiring no runway.

I can appreciate an elegant design solution when I see one – and I do here.

By: RRS

RRS — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 14:43:23 +0000

With the Arctic ice melting and shipping lanes opening up, and unexplored oil and gas fields ripe for the picking, Canada does have legitimate reasons for having a presence up there. However I just can’t get the image of penguins riding around in stealth snowmobiles out of my head…(yes I know penguins are in the South Pole)

By: wodun

wodun — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 14:41:39 +0000

I agree with ^^ that guy.

The author should try looking at a globe instead of a map.

By: Brian 2

Brian 2 — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 14:37:20 +0000

-40C = -40F, they are the same thing .. just FYI.

By: Zaltec

Zaltec — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 14:25:52 +0000

@Kennit
Actually, for -40 the correct answer would be “both”!

By: Celsius

Celsius — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 13:47:05 +0000

To @kennit & @phanmo
-40 is the same in fahrenheit & celsius.
It’s one of the few things Canadians & Americans agree on.

By: JC

JC — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 13:22:33 +0000

Does this remind anyone of The Golden Compass series of books?

By: JMW

JMW — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 12:19:35 +0000

@5 Brian Too. Actually, you forget about the United States (Alaska), Denmark (Greenland), Iceland…and Russia.

After all, a Russian submarine planted the Russian flag on the sea floor at the North Pole. Danes planted a Danish flag on an island in Canadian territory in the waters between Greenland and the rest of Canada.

Personally, I’m not sure how well airships will perform in the winter in arctic. The -40 temperatures are one thing, but the wind speeds in excess of 80 km/h will make these things big kites.

By: Anthony

Anthony — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 08:33:18 +0000

@phanmo
Pick one, they’re both correct since -40 degrees is the same for Celsius or Fahrenheit; it’s the precise number where both temperature scales coincide.

By: Pamela Lara

Pamela Lara — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 04:59:51 +0000

Starters Canada?

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 04:11:31 +0000

-40 is the same in Fahrenheit or Celsius.

By: MILNEWS.ca

MILNEWS.ca — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 02:46:15 +0000

A reminder: a private sector airline buying blimps to move big, heavy stuff to mines in remote areas =/= part of Canada’s “defending the Arctic” effort.

While the Cold War is over, let’s also remember Canada’s “northern neighbour” is Russia, one of several countries aching to call dibs on some of the Arctic for a range of reasons.

By: Brian Too

Brian Too — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 00:01:22 +0000

You say that “Canada has no northern neighbor…” but you forget about Santa Claus. The big red guy has been patrolling the borders, making overflights, issuing belligerent press releases, and we think he has been downing high octane egg nog. Oh, and the DND has issued an RFP to address the dreaded ‘Reindeer Gap’!

By: Lindalu Forseth

Lindalu Forseth — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 22:51:42 +0000

You need to remember that our (Canada’s) norther borders are always being preyed upon by other nations challenging where those boundaries exist. This is the most efficient method of monitoring our northern borders. The mean average temperature in the Arctic is -9.7* C (about 14* F) and can go as low as -60* C in the winter. Permafrost plays the devil on the roads and airports as it is without the concern of any climate warming.

So rather than taunt Canada for being innovative, perhaps you should do a bit more research and acknowledge the ingenuity of these purchases. We’re not all looking for people to go to war with.

By: Kennit

Kennit — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 21:36:14 +0000

@phanmo
That would be Celsius here in Canada.

By: phanmo

phanmo — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 20:56:30 +0000

@Brian
Is that -40 Celsius or Fahrenheit?

By: John

John — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 20:28:45 +0000

Seems like they are gearing up for the Resource Wars and the battle for the Artic.

By: Brian Lang

Brian Lang — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 19:20:38 +0000

Canada’s Arctic and huge tracts of Alaska have large areas of tundra. As the permafrost melts out (due to climate change), anything on the surface starts to sink. Building roads is next to impossible under those conditions. During the winter ice roads are used, but the useable season for those is getting shorter. Hence the “blimps”. Building ports for ships falls into the same “boat” as building roads… if a port were built, it is likely to sink.
Oh, and winters get a hell of a lot colder than -12 degrees. Try -40 degrees and colder.