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.

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...

Underwater Tunnels Revolutionize the Faroes

By Mia Bennett 2018-06-03 20:13:04

55 million years ago, the Northeast Atlantic Ocean opened up between Europe and Greenland, pushing the two landmasses apart. In the middle of this incipient churning ocean, massive volcanic eruptions spewed volcanic ash and bombs and layer upon layer of dark gray lava basalt flows. Over millennia, the basalt grew six kilometers thick, forming the geologic base of the Faroe Islands. Today, only 900 meters of the ancient volcanic rock rises above the water. Ripping winds and heaving seas have...

The Cost of the Bridge to Crimea

By Mia Bennett 2018-05-18 14:56:00

A little over four years after Crimea became separated from Ukraine and joined with Russia, a new $3.7 billion, 19-kilometer bridge from the mainland across the Kerch Strait has made the linkage of Russia’s newest territorial acquisition concrete. This week, Russian President Vladimir Putin jumped behind the wheel of a tangerine KAMAZ truck bedecked with miniature flags in order to lead a convoy across the bridge. Construction began in May 2015 under the supervision of Arkady Rotenberg, a legendary...

Qingdao: China?s Iron Gateway to the Arctic

By Mia Bennett 2018-05-06 20:46:55

In January, China released its first Arctic Policy. In the U.S., fearful headlines greeted the document, from The Wall Street Journal’s suspicion of whether a “new Cold War” was on the way to Foreign Policy’s proclamation that “China’s ready to cash in on a melting Arctic.” But beyond the headlines, what’s actually going on on the ground in China? What are the actual places driving China’s northern push, and what’s going on there? To find out, earlier this week, I...

Emission Impossible

By Mia Bennett 2018-04-28 17:55:47

In a world of globalized trade, ships are often seen as a green alternative for moving goods from one place to another. As vessels glide across the oceans, they tend to remain “out of sight, out of mind” except when they come into port. Compared to exhaust-spewing trucks and trains rattling every day through local neighborhoods and airplanes roaring loudly overhead, ships seem a pleasant and even romantic mode of transportation. Small Fish? If only their carbon footprint is considered,...

The Polar Code, One Year On

By Mia Bennett 2018-04-06 20:39:00

On January 1, 2017, the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Polar Code came into effect. The functional, risk-based Code establishes mandatory regulations and standards for vessels operating in ice-covered waters to, in its own words, “Provide for safe ship operation and the protection of the polar environment by addressing risks present in polar waters and not adequately mitigated by other instruments of the Organization.” One year into the Code’s implementation, now is a good time to take stock of how its...

The Automation of Arctic oil

By Mia Bennett 2018-02-17 19:00:27

Big Oil is often regarded as an industry of yesteryear, unwilling and slow to change with the times. In some ways, corporations like Shell and BP might as well be painted as fossils digging up fossil fuels. But yesterday, while reading a story in the Financial Times titled "Drillers turn to big data in the hunt for more, cheaper oil," I was struck by how readily they have adopted new technologies that will ostensibly allow them to continue to drill...

What Does China's Arctic Policy Actually Say?

By Mia Bennett 2018-01-28 16:20:09

China has been an active player in the Arctic for years now, sending an icebreaker towards the North Pole, opening a research station on Svalbard when the Concorde was still taking to the skies and investing in a major Russian liquefied natural gas project. Its officials have been vocal about their country's northern interests in a variety of forums from the Arctic Council, where it has been an observer since 2013, to Arctic Circle, a major international conference that takes...

Russia and China Claim Success at Yamal LNG

By Mia Bennett 2017-12-15 21:33:55

Last Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin descended on the frigid Yamal Peninsula to participate in the opening ceremony for a major Arctic liquefied natural gas (LNG) project at the booming port town of Sabetta. Just a few years ago, hardly anybody lived at this remote outpost on the peninsula, a thumb of land sticking out from Siberia criss-crossed by reindeer herders and pipelines. Now, 30,000 employees, mostly shift workers imported from southern and central Russia, have helped to construct the...