Out in the cold

摘要

On 25 June, the US Coast Guard announced that its only operational heavy icebreaker, the Polar Sea, was operational no longer. The ship had suffered 'an unexpected engine casualty' and limped back to its home port of Seattle, Washington, where it will undergo repairs until January 2011. A refurbishment in 2006 had supposedly extended its operational life to 2014. The announcement underscored the decrepit state of Americas ageing icebreaker fleetrn- a situation with many troubling implications for the United States, not least its ability to carry out Arctic and Antarctic research.