Archive for December 30th, 2008
Arctic Ice Gone By 2015 – First Time in One Million Years
“We’re going to see huge changes in the Arctic ecosystem“
[update Apr 29 2010: "When the sea ice melts, more heat is absorbed by the water. The warmer water then heats the atmosphere above it...this feedback system has warmed the atmosphere at a faster rate." Confirms loss of sea ice is rapidly warming Arctic -- Study in Nature yesterday. - SL]
By Stephen Leahy
QUEBEC CITY, Canada, Dec 13 2008 (IPS)
In just a few summers from now, the Arctic Ocean will lose its protective cover of ice for the first time in a million years, according to some experts attending the International Arctic Change conference here.
A summer ice-free Arctic wasn’t due for another 50 to 70 years under the worst-case climate change scenarios examined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
“Things are happening much faster in the Arctic. I think it will be summer ice-free by 2015,” said David Barber, an Arctic climatologist at the University of Manitoba.
Such a “dramatic and serious loss of sea ice will affect everyone on the planet,” Barber told IPS. Read the rest of this entry »
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