Climate change has opened up a direct route from the Pacific to the Atlantic

Climate change is causing ice to melt, which is making the fabled Northwest Passage increasingly passable.
(Image credit: iStock)

Sorry, Panama Canal. You are no longer the only waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

For hundreds of years, European explorers sought to find the mythical Northwest Passage, a waterway linking the north of Canada to the north of America. (Henry Hudson, after which Hudson Bay takes its name, was so determined to find this passageway that he was literally mutinied by his crew). In 1903, Roald Amundsen was finally able to complete the Arctic passage, but it took him three years and he kept getting stuck in the ice.

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.