Melting Ice Caps and Shipping Routes

Blaming greenhouse gas emissions, scientists are now saying that multiyear Arctic ice has effectively disappeared. This finding strengthens some experts' claims that the North Pole could be ice-free for the first time in a million years by the summer of 2030.

Typically, the vast fields of multiyear ice could reach up to 230 feet thick. According to Reuters, Arctic experts are finding supplies of the impenetrable ice in short supply.

Although this unsettling development is a real threat to the longevity of our polar ice caps, the short-term implications could provide a boost to global shipping firms. Investors looking to profit from the melting icecaps can do so with the Claymore/AlphaShares Delta Global Shipping ETF (SEA - commentary - Trade Now).

The thick multiyear ice made it impossible to take advantage of the Northwest Passage connecting the Atlantic to the Pacific. However, with the thickest ice now far from shipping routes, some foreign firms are already taking advantage of the new opportunity in front of them.

With nations increasing international trade and easier access to the world's oceans, positive performance may be on the horizon for SEA.

At the time of publication, Dion had no positions in stocks mentioned.

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Don Dion is president and founder of Dion Money Management, a fee-based investment advisory firm to affluent individuals, families and nonprofit organizations, where he is responsible for setting investment policy, creating custom portfolios and overseeing the performance of client accounts. Founded in 1996 and based in Williamstown, Mass., Dion Money Management manages assets for clients in 49 states and 11 countries. Dion is a licensed attorney in Massachusetts and Maine and has more than 25 years' experience working in the financial markets, having founded and run two publicly traded companies before establishing Dion Money Management.

Dion also is publisher of the Fidelity Independent Adviser family of newsletters, which provides to a broad range of investors his commentary on the financial markets, with a specific emphasis on mutual funds and exchange-traded funds. With more than 100,000 subscribers in the U.S. and 29 other countries, Fidelity Independent Adviser publishes six monthly newsletters and three weekly newsletters. Its flagship publication, Fidelity Independent Adviser, has been published monthly for 11 years and reaches 40,000 subscribers.