CNN.com - Will ice melt open fabled Northwest Passage? - August 29, 2002

In the next ten years, yet. All those explorers back in the 16th and 17th centuries, they weren't wrong. They were just too early.

A cleared Northwest Passage would be bad for the Inuit, at least in the short term. It would be good for Europeans and East Asians, because the route would be much quicker. And it would be terrible for Panama.

Of course, There's No Such Thing As Global Warming.