AHC: No Canal across the Americas

Have the Indusrial Revolution start a century early...and put it into hyper-super-overdrive! Then the CO2 levels would skyrocket enough to melt the Arctic icecaps as they are present-day. With the Northwest (and Northeast) Passage safe for passage at least during the summer, that would greatly mitigate, if not eliminate the need for a canal connecting the Atlantic to Asia.

The big challenge would be to delay the development of the North American Pacific coast compared to the Atlantic coast, so there's no urgent need to build a canal. I guess this can be a second alternate POD, where the US does not stretch from sea to sea.
Post 1800 PoD, remember. The Industrial revolution has already started.
 
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