The Bering Strait Crossing: A 21st Century Frontier between East and WestThe Bering Strait Crossing is the epic story of the Intercontinental Divide. The ancient waterway - when the fog clears over the Diomede Islands - is among the world’s most stunning vistas. This is where the 53-mile wide strait, named for Danish explorer Vitus Bering (1681-1741), separates four continents across the Europe-Asia landmass and the Americas. Extremes of climate, isolation, and geopolitical tension have all interfaced to create the perception of a frozen limbo at the edge of the world. Yet the Bering Strait is the world’s geographical crossroads - linking East with West - for nowhere else on the globe is it possible to cross the Pacific Rim between Asia and the Americas. In the modern era, various schemes have been proposed - rail, ferry, tunnel - by which to cross the strait. Since the end of the Cold War, a scheduled air service has been in place. The strait remains undefeated in terms of a terrestrial link between the USA and Russia - so far. The author uncovers a world-shaping revelation: that the Bering Strait has the potential to become a global shipping nexus via the Northwest Passage and the Northern Sea Route between Europe, North America, and Asia. The self-induced amnesia of the long Cold War years is yielding to a fresh outlook between East and West across the strait. In a world thirsty for energy resources and trade, the prospect for US-Russian cooperation across the northern Pacific Rim is tantalising in its multiplicity - and vastness - with profound implications for the global economy. In this twenty first century, the Beringia corridors (N-S, E-W) have the potential to unite the world. |
From inside the book
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... decades gave birth to an enduring myth: that there are more people alive now than have ever lived. Demographers4 have since studied this claim (as though unsure of the fallacy), and came up with a riposte: there about 6-7 per cent of us ...
... decade later , George Koumal reports from the swelter of his Tucson hide - away that his proposal for a Bering Strait tunnel scheme , though a thing of the past , is perceived by his listeners as ' futuristic ' . This is a response on a ...
... decades . The age of powered flight appears to have induced a kind of modal amnesia where any fixed - link scheme is concerned . Then , the long years of the Cold War turned the Bering Strait into a No Man's Land - an ideological ...
... decade , he travelled widely throughout Siberia . His energetic and determined purpose : to collect tribute from the natives of these regions . Soon , his reputation as a resourceful agent of the Russian State was well established . By ...
... decades , were Russian scholars able to prove beyond doubt that Dezhnev had indeed passed through the Intercontinental Divide . A date to remember , 1648 : the year marks the divide in time . The Europeans of the day , deprived of this ...
Contents
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19 | |
31 | |
40 | |
A Footnote to Gvozdev | 55 |
Captain Cooks Third Voyage | 61 |
Beyond the Two Islands Return to the Sandwich Islands | 73 |
W H Seward has his Way | 89 |
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The Bering Strait Crossing: A 21st Century Frontier between East and West James A. Oliver Limited preview - 2006 |