It has been more than 40 years since Bernt Balchen (the first to pilot a plane over both poles) suggested that the oil from Alaska be taken out by ship, with a troika of icebreakers. As the Arctic ice melted, he suggested, the shipping of oil by ship would be easier.

Balchen’s suggestion would have made the building of the pipeline across Alaska unnecessary, a pipeline which is a blight on the landscape and vulnerable to attack.

Inger Urbahn

Camden