Mia Bennett

Mia Bennett is a frequent contributor to The Maritime Executive magazine. Her research and writing focus on how commodities cycles, globalization, and climate change are affecting trade networks, transportation, and natural resource development in the Arctic.She holds an MPhil in Polar Studies and is currently a PHD candidate in the UCLA Department of Geography.

In 1969, Humans Reached the Moon – And the North Pole, Too

By Mia Bennett 2019-08-09 14:28:26

Today, the world looks back on that fateful date fifty years ago when man landed on the moon. Yet few people realize that a mere 101 days before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took their fateful steps across a “fine and powdery” surface, mankind officially reached the North Pole. That’s right: it wasn’t until April 6, 1969 – in the springtime of hasty planning at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston – that a human officially made it to the top of the planet. That...

Scotland Seizes Arctic Winds of Change

By Mia Bennett 2019-07-16 20:29:47

Each morning before rolling out of bed, my usual routine involves checking the weather. I look at the temperature and the chance of rain. But while cycling and running across Scotland's outlying islands last week, as I learned from my friend who has been studying at St. Andrews for three years now, it's also important to check the wind. Never before have I thought so much about blowing gusts of air. Before traipsing to these remote islands settled by Neolithic...

The Arctic Shipping Route No One’s Talking About

By Mia Bennett 2019-05-08 15:39:44

I recently attended (via teleconference, to cut down on travel time and emissions!) a meeting on future maritime trade flows at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)’s International Transport Forum. One session focused exclusively on the Northern Sea Route, the shipping route along Russia’s north coast that has sat at the center of discussions on Arctic development for the better part of two decades now. Due to Chatham House rules, I can’t quote anyone who spoke in the workshop....

Greening the World’s Blue Highways

By Mia Bennett 2019-05-01 18:34:39

Ferries today are typically fueled by oil, but when they first got their start beasts of burden propelled them across the water. In the Roman Empire, two oxen walking in front of a ship with a water wheel supposedly powered one of the first known ferries. Thousands of years later, animal-powered boats, called “team boats,” were widely used as ferries in 19th century America. But as the Industrial Revolution took hold, coal-burning steamboats replaced...

How a Norwegian Coastal Ferry Service Went Global

By Mia Bennett 2019-03-01 17:35:34

Six Januaries ago, I took a Hurtigruten ferry for an extremely reasonable price of about £60. Hurtigruten is the name of the legendary coastal service established in 1893 – before the Norwegians learned to lay roads and rails across their countryside and drill tunnels through their mountains – to deliver mail and supplies to the many isolated towns that dot the rugged coastline. Unlike in many other parts of the Arctic, year-round sailing around Norway’s coastline is possible...

2018: Recapping the Year in the Arctic

By Mia Bennett 2019-01-09 16:35:10

Planet Earth has completed another rotation around the sun, which has now set on the Arctic for the next three months. As polar winter sets in, I spoke with Eilis Quinn, a Radio Canada International (RCI) reporter specializing in the Arctic, about the events that took place up north over the past year. Our full conversation is available to listen to or read on RCI’s Eye on the Arctic page here. You can read on below for an elaboration...

How a Doomed Arctic Voyage Presaged Transpolar Flights

By Mia Bennett 2018-12-22 18:17:16

Last month, I flew from Los Angeles to Hong Kong on one of those sleek jets that fuse heaven and earth, a Boeing 777. The livery was painted in the green and white colors of Cathay Pacific, the Hong Kong-based airliner whose name combines the ancient word for China with the world’s largest ocean. We took off an hour before midnight from Los Angeles with the artificially illuminated desert spilling into the black waves beneath us. Bound for Asia, the...

Seated in the center from left to right are the Korean Arctic Ambassador Park Heung-kyeong, China’s Ambassador to the Arctic Gao Feng, and Japan’s Arctic Ambassador Eiji Yamamoto.

South Korea, an Unlikely Polar Pioneer, Hosts Arctic Conference

By Mia Bennett 2018-12-15 14:59:00

Over the weekend, as the temperature in Seoul plunged to -12°C, Koreans bundled up in the long puffy black parkas that seem to be this year’s signature winter wear in Asia’s capital of style. In the shopping district of Myeongdong, young people took to the streets to go shopping and enjoy the latest innovations in Korean street food like Oreo churros and egg bread (an entire egg cracked on top of a soft, pillowy oval cake). With the unusually cold...

When the Ice Melts, What Will Happen to Arctic Tourism?

By Mia Bennett 2018-10-03 23:33:38

Glimmering aurora have returned to light up northern night skies, meaning that summer is drawing to a close. With these seasonal changes, as the last berries were picked and the tundra turned to red, Arctic sea ice reached its minimum extent for the year. At 1.77 million square miles, the amount of ocean covered by ice was the sixth-lowest ever, tying 2008 and 2010. Sea ice extent has recovered slightly since reaching a record low in September 2012, which was...

Interview: 30 Years of Arctic Photography and Science

By Mia Bennett 2018-08-03 19:03:30

I recently spoke with Christoph Ruhsam, the polar photographer behind the new book, Frozen Latitudes, and honorary secretary of the Austrian Society for Polar Research. For Ruhsam, who works in the IT industry for a living and serves voluntarily as the Austrian Polar Research Institute’s honorary secretary, traveling to the Arctic has been a lifelong passion. Originally from Austria, he grew up close to the glaciers that for millennia have kept the top of the Alps in a deep freeze. But during his lifetime, he’s...