Global warming might benefit the Straits of Malacca.
In an article on the New Straits Times, the director-general of the Maritime Institute of Malaysia Datuk Cheah Kong Wai has claimed that warmer waters will reduce pollution in the straits. This is in the context of the permanent opening up of northeast and northwest passages through the Arctic region once sufficient ice has melted. This will divert traffic forced through Southeast Asia and instead through these waterways which are usually only navigable during summer months – resulting in less pollution and erosion for Malaysia and other littoral states.
Cheah states,
“The Northeast Passage only benefits ships from Europe and North America going to Korea, Japan and China (and vice versa). Those that stop here will continue to use the straits as it is still a shorter route (for them).”
It’s also expected that such a change in shipping lines will not affect Southeast Asia too much – as those ships normally bound for the region will continue to call there. It does however lead to consider the effect on insurance and shipping cost reduction, and opens up matters of sovereignty of the Arctic waters.
This issue is not unexpected either, since the area has been monitored since 1978 by the European Space Agency (ESA), and it has popped up in news articles for several years now. Nonetheless this has considerable strategic implications for states in the international system, and there’s indication this matter is already being monitored – Scott G. Borgerson for instance wrote on the ‘Arctic Meltdown’ in Foreign Affairs earlier this year.
I wonder though, will there be a emergence in Russian, Canadian or Greenlandic piracy?
Sources:
Marc Lourdes, ‘Melting polar ice cuts pollution in Straits of Malacca’, New Straits Times Online, 07-10-2008
BBC News, ‘Warming ‘Opens Northwest Passage”, 14-09-2007
ABC News Online: Sci-Tech News, ‘Arctic thaw may open ship lanes, but risks high’, 10-11-2004
Scott G. Borgerson, ‘Arctic Meltdown: The Economic and Security Implications of Global Warming’, Foreign Affairs, March/April 2008
