Global Warming Joins the Fight Against Global Piracy

Loyal readers know that Blawgconomics has, to put it mildly, an interest in pirates. From a youth spent recreating high seas battles with Lego to an adulthood studying international law's handling of modern piracy issues, the scourges of the seas have never been far from the imagination of your humble author. Increasingly Blawgconomics has found itself accompanied in our interests as technology and access to weaponry have made one of the world's oldest professions a bit more lucrative, and thus prevalent of late. Anyone who doubts this need only look to pop culture for examples.

Though it has been nostagically satisfying to see pirates being splashed across the headlines lately, there are also some problems with the rising trend, including dirty business such as kidnappings, ransoming, high-risk rescues, shipping losses, etc. This has made the powers that be unhappy, and well, suffice to say that with the recent global increase in piracy has naturally come an inevitable global increase in fighting piracy. And those policing the seas have found no less an ironic ally than global warming to assist in the effort.

Many of the areas most afflicted by piracy have, at least in part, geography to blame for their troubles. Bottlenecks in shipping lanes around less affluent nations provide one such example. Therefore, any way that shippers could avoid bottlenecks in shipping lanes around less affluent nations would obviously go some way toward alleviating the threat of piracy on those voyages. Crews would be safer, shipments would be more dependable, insurance payments would decrease. A win-win for all parties involved (except, of course, the pirates).

Perhaps recognizing this, or maybe feeling a little jealous of the increased media coverage global piracy has received of late, global warming has stepped up to the plate in a bid to facilitate travel in the last place pirates would look for booty...the Arctic Circle. That's right, the 'alleged' systematic rise in global temperatures has opened up new shipping lanes up north that are free, at least for now, from the scourge of piracy.

Perhaps if Al Gore could be talked into spending some time doing something beside increasing his carbon footprint for a few minutes, even he would agree that global warming has a place in today's pirate-infested society.