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The Arctic is Melting Main page climate change Arctic Melt Greenland is melting Mountain Glaciers are melting Permafrost & methane hydrates at risk Sea Level Rise Pages in Dutch: Klimaatverandering Wetenschap & milieu Noordpool bedreigd Antarctica bedreigd Gletsjers smelten External pages: gristmill.grist.org : How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic / Summer ice in the Arctic has recovered!? earthobservatory.nasa.gov: Arctic Sea Ice Reaches Annual Minimum (New Images) nsidc.org: Daily update sea ice extent earthobservatory.nasa.gov: Disintegration of Iceberg A53a www.physorg.com: New Greenland ice sheet data will impact climate change models www.aftenposten.no: Huge grotto found under Norwegian glacier www.cbc.ca: The Big Melt nsidc.org Sep 2007: Arctic Sea Ice News Fall 2007 researchpages.net 08302007: Tipping points in the Earth system www.gfdl.noaa.gov 09052006: Does the Arctic sea ice have a tipping point? (pdf)

NASA data show Arctic saw fastest August sea ice retreat on record
Boulder (Col/USA), September 28 2008 - Following a record-breaking season of arctic sea ice decline in 2007, NASA scientists have kept a close watch on the 2008 melt season. Although the melt season did not break the record for ice loss, NASA data are showing that for a four-week period in August 2008, sea ice melted faster during that period than ever before.
www.physorg.com: NASA data show Arctic saw fastest August sea ice retreat on record

Arctic Sea Ice Reaches Annual Minimum
Boulder (Col/USA), September 17 2008 - The arrival of Northern Hemisphere autumn signals the end of the seasonal retreat of Arctic sea ice. Polar scientists from the National Snow and Ice Data Center report that sea ice appeared to hit its lowest extent on September 14, 2008, when the area at least 15 percent covered by ice dropped to 4.52 million square kilometers (1.74 million square miles). The 2008 minimum is the second-lowest recorded since 1979, or 2.24 million square kilometers (0.86 million square miles) below normal (1979–2000).
earthobservatory.nasa.gov: Arctic Sea Ice Reaches Annual Minimum (New images)

Arctic sea ice reaches lowest extent in 2008, second lowest ever recorded
Boulder (Col/USA), September 16 2008 - The Arctic sea ice cover appears to have reached its minimum extent for the year, the second-lowest extent recorded since satellite record-keeping began in 1979, according to the University of Colorado at Boulder's National Snow and Ice Data Center, or NSIDC.
nsidc.org: Sea Ice Index: Last month's sea ice conditions/Most recent daily sea ice conditions
nsidc.org: Timeseries Arctic Melt

Lowest ever sea ice in Arctic
Washington, October 16 2008 - Declining ice thickness and what is looking like the second lowest coverage on record means that Arctic sea ice may well have reached its lowest levels ever in terms of total volume.
www.enn.com: Lowest ever sea ice in Arctic

WWF: Melting Arctic adds urgency to climate deal
Oslo, September 15 2008 - Data showing Arctic sea ice may reach its lowest level on record this summer underscores the need for governments to speed up talks on a new climate pact, the Worldwide Fund for Nature said.
www.physorg.com / WWF: Melting Arctic adds urgency to climate deal
www.panda.org: Lowest ever sea ice in the Arctic
environment.newscientist.com: Melting ice caps could suck carbon from atmosphere

Melting ice cap pushes Arctic up EU agenda
Brussel, September 10 2008 - The rapid melting of the polar ice cap in the Arctic offers Europe a "first-time opportunity" to access new trade routes and massive oil and gas deposits, the European Commission has said - developments that are pushing the EU's polar strategy up the policy agenda.
euobserver.com: Melting ice cap pushes Arctic up EU agenda

Canada's arctic ice shelf has 'massively' shrunk
Montreal, September 4 2008 - The ice shelves in Canada's northern Arctic have shrunk at a "massive and disturbing" rate, with huge tracts breaking off and floating away, say scientists.
In what researchers say is the latest evidence of accelerating climate change, 83 square miles of ice attached to Ellesmere Island – more than three times the area of Manhattan island - have broken away this summer.
www.telegraph.co.uk: Canada's arctic ice shelf has 'massively' shrunk
www.physorg.com: Canada's Arctic ice shelves break apart, drift away
earthobservatory.nasa.gov: Ice Shelves Retreat on Ellesmere Island (Images)
www.planetark.com: Arctic Melting Shows Global Warming Serious

Arctic Ice Second-Lowest Ever

www.esa.int: Arctic ice on the verge of another all-time low

Washington, August 28/31 2008 - Arctic sea ice shrank to its second-lowest level ever, US scientists said on Wednesday, with particular melting in the Chukchi Sea, where polar bears were recently seen swimming far off the Alaskan coast.
Researchers say the Arctic is now at a climatic "tipping point". "We could very well be in that quick slide downwards in terms of passing a tipping point," said Mark Serreze, a senior scientist at the Colorado-based NSIDC.
"It's tipping now. We're seeing it happen now," he told the Associated Press news agency.
www.grist.org: Arctic ice in a 'death spiral' as it hits second-lowest point ever
www.planetark.com: Arctic Ice Second-Lowest Ever; Polar Bears Affected
ap.google.com: Arctic sea ice drops to 2nd lowest level on record
www.sciam.com: Fabled Northwest Passage open for business in the Arctic
www.telegraph.co.uk: Arctic becomes an island as ice melts
afp.google.com: North Pole ice cap melting faster than ever
news.bbc.co.uk: Arctic ice 'is at tipping point'
www.enn.com: Arctic ice on the verge of another all-time low
www.esa.int: Arctic ice on the verge of another all-time low
www.time.com: Arctic Sea Ice Nears Record Low

Daily updates on the ice conditions:
nsidc.org: Sea Ice Index: Last month's sea ice conditions/Most recent daily sea ice conditions
nsidc.org: Timeseries Arctic Melt

Polar bear sightings stir climate debate
Anchorage, (Alaska) August 22 2008 - Federal wildlife monitors spotted nine polar bears in one day swimming in open ocean off Alaska's northwest coast, and environmental groups say the event is a strong signal that diminished sea ice brought on by warming has put U.S. bears at risk of drowning or dying from effects of fatigue.
www.latimes.com: Polar bear sightings stir climate debate
www.nytimes.com: 10 Polar Bears Are Seen Swimming in Open Water

Create a global authority for Arctic oil and gas
August 14 2008 - Whatever happens with the development of alternative fuels, and however much we economise on using energy, the world will be reliant on oil, gas and coal for decades. The challenge of developing conventional energy sources in an environmentally sustainable way is one of the most critical we face. We therefore need to create an institution imbued with sovereign powers to develop the massive fuel sources in the Arctic Circle. It would be a far-reaching step, but the stakes warrant a special attempt to take it.
www.ft.com: Create a global authority for Arctic oil and gas

U.S. scouts out territory in Arctic; ice-cover loss could be worst ever
Anchorage (Alaska), August 14, 2008 - (grist.org) - U.S. scientists will head to the Arctic this week on a quest to map the ocean floor, and will collaborate with Canada on a surveying trip in September. The two nations -- and their Arctic-bordering compatriots Russia, Denmark, and Norway -- are scrambling to measure their respective continental shelves, with an eye to claiming as much as they can of the estimated 90 billion barrels of oil that could potentially become accessible if the Arctic gets melty enough.
So how's the northern region doing these days? "We thought Arctic ice cover might recover after last year's unprecedented melting," says Mark Serreze of the National Snow and Ice Data Center, but, "it now looks as if it will be a very close call indeed whether 2007 or 2008 is the worst year on record for ice cover over the Arctic." Such conditions are, notes oceanographer Larry Mayer, "bad for the Arctic, but very, very good for mapping."
www.reuters.com: U.S. ship heads for Arctic to define territory
www.sfgate.com: Rush to Arctic as warming opens oil deposits
afp.google.com: Canada, US team up in key Arctic study
www.canada.com: Arctic meltdown could set new record

Meltdown in the Arctic is speeding up
Anchorage (Alaska), August 10, 2008 - Ice at the North Pole melted at an unprecedented rate last week, with leading scientists warning that the Arctic could be ice-free in summer by 2013.
Satellite images show that ice caps started to disintegrate dramatically several days ago as storms over Alaska's Beaufort Sea began sucking streams of warm air into the Arctic.
www.guardian.co.uk: Meltdown in the Arctic is speeding up
nsidc.org: Sea Ice Index: Last month's sea ice conditions/Most recent daily sea ice conditions
nsidc.org: Timeseries Arctic Melt

Global warming has its own language. For our children's sake, we have to start speaking it
Kangia Glacier, August 10, 2008 - Sometimes you just wish you were a photographer. I simply do not have the words to describe the awesome majesty of Greenland's Kangia glacier, shedding massive icebergs the size of skyscrapers and slowly pushing them down the Ilulissat fjord until they crash into the ocean off the island's west coast. There, these natural ice sculptures float and bob around the glassy waters near here. You can sail between them in a fishing boat, listening to these white ice monsters crackle and break, heave and sigh, as if they were noisily protesting their fate.
www.guardian.co.uk: Global warming has its own language. For our children's sake, we have to start speaking it

For second year in a row, melt may open Northwest Passage
Anchorage (Alaska), August 4, 2008 - Alaska's warm weather this summer has all "gone north." Way north. Scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center say strong, southerly winds from the North Slope have devoured a huge swath of Arctic ice larger than the state of Texas in the heart of the Beaufort Sea.
www.enn.com: For second year in a row, melt may open Northwest Passage

Arctic Ice Bigger Than 2007, But Thawing Long-Term
Oslo, July 31, 2008 - Arctic sea ice is unlikely to shrink below a 2007 record low this year in a reprieve from the worst predictions of climate change even though new evidence confirms a long-term thaw is under way, experts said.
www.planetark.org: Arctic Ice Bigger Than 2007, But Thawing Long-Term

Polar scientists reveal dramatic new evidence of climate change
London, June 27/30, 2008 - It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course to disappear entirely from the North Pole this year.
The disappearance of the Arctic sea ice, making it possible to reach the Pole sailing in a boat through open water, would be one of the most dramatic – and worrying – examples of the impact of global warming on the planet. Scientists say the ice at 90 degrees north may well have melted away by the summer.
www.independent.co.uk: No ice at the North Pole
www.independent.co.uk / Peter Wadhams: Every time I visit the Arctic, the ice gets thinner

North Pole Notes: Arctic sea ice still on track for extreme melt
London, June 21, 2008 - (by Realclimate / Gavin Schmidt) - I always find it interesting as to why some stories get traction in the mainstream media and why some don't. In online science discussions, the fate of this years summer sea ice has been the focus of a significant betting pool, a test of expert prediction skills, and a week-by-week (almost) running commentary. However, none of these efforts made it on to the Today program. Instead, a rather casual article in the Independent showed the latest thickness data and that quoted Mark Serreze as saying that the area around the North Pole had 50/50 odds of being completely ice free this summer, has taken off across the media.
www.realclimate.org: North Pole notes
nsidc.org: Arctic sea ice still on track for extreme melt

Greenland Summit To Discuss Carve-Up Of Arctic
Copenhagen, May 27 / 29 , 2008 - Officials from five Arctic coastal countries will meet in Greenland this week to discuss how to carve up the Arctic Ocean, which could hold up to one-quarter of the world's undiscovered oil and gas reserves.
www.planetark.com: Greenland Summit To Discuss Carve-Up Of Arctic
www.planetark.com: Arctic Claimants Say They Will Obey UN Rules

Vast cracks appear in Arctic ice
London / Montreal, May 23 2008 - Dramatic evidence of the break-up of the Arctic ice-cap has emerged from research during an expedition by the Canadian military.
news.bbc.co.uk: Vast cracks appear in Arctic ice

Japan scientists warn Arctic ice melting fast
Tokyo, May 12 2008 - Arctic ice is melting fast and the area covered by ice sheets in ocean could shrink this summer to the smallest since 1978 when satellite observation first started, Japanese scientists warned in a report.
www.enn.com: Arctic sea ice forecast: another record low in 2008

Arctic sea ice forecast: another record low in 2008
Boulder (Col / USA) May 1, 2008 - Arctic sea ice, sometimes billed as Earth's air conditioner for its moderating effects on world climate, will probably shrink to a record low level this year, scientists predicted on Wednesday.
In releasing the forecast, climate researcher Sheldon Drobot of the University of Colorado at Boulder called the changes in Arctic sea ice "one of the more compelling and obvious signs of climate change."
www.reuters.com: Arctic sea ice forecast: another record low in 2008

North Pole could be ice free in 2008
Washington, April 25, 2008 - You know when climate change is biting hard when instead of a vast expanse of snow the North Pole is a vast expanse of water. This year, for the first time, Arctic scientists are preparing for that possibility.
www.newscientist.com: North Pole could be ice free in 2008
nsidc.org: Sea ice in 2008

Arctic Getting "Wetter" Due to Human-Driven Warming
April 25, 2008 - In addition to heating up faster than almost anywhere else on the planet, the Arctic has gotten wetter and snowier because of global warming, according to a new study.
The extra precipitation could freshen ocean water in the Arctic and North Atlantic, researchers say, which might disrupt the so-called ocean conveyor belt, a current that runs through the Atlantic and carries warm water northward from the Equator.
news.nationalgeographic.com: Arctic Getting "Wetter" Due to Human-Driven Warming

Arctic ice seen melting faster than anticipated
Geneva, April 23, 2008 - Arctic ice may be melting faster than most climate change science has concluded, the conservation group WWF said in a report.
It found that ice in Greenland and across the Arctic region was retreating "at rates significantly faster than predicted in previous expert assessments".
The Greenland Ice Sheet - with an ice volume of about 2.9 million cubic kilometers - is shrinking at a fast pace and "could contribute much more than previously estimated to global sea-level rise during the 21st century," the WWF said.
www.bbc.co.uk: Arctic ice seen melting faster than anticipated
www.telegraph.co.uk: Arctic ice melting 'faster than predicted'
www.panda.org: Climate change hitting the Arctic faster and harder

Arctic losing long-term ice cover

London / Washington, March 18 2008 - The Arctic is losing its old, thick ice faster than in previous years, according to satellite data.
The loss has continued since the end of the Arctic summer, despite cold weather across the northern hemisphere.
www.bbc.co.uk: Arctic losing long-term ice cover
earthobservatory.nasa.gov: Arctic Sea Ice Younger than Normal
nsidc.org: Arctic Sea Ice News (8,2 mb)

Could Arctic ice melt spawn new kind of cold war?
Washington, March 9 2008 - With oil above $100 a barrel and Arctic ice melting faster than ever, some of the world's most powerful countries -- including the United States and Russia -- are looking north to a possible energy bonanza.
www.reuters.com: Could Arctic ice melt spawn new kind of cold war?
www.guardian.co.uk: Climate change may spark conflict with Russia, EU told

Arctic Oil Bonanza Worries Alaska Natives
Anchorage, February 26, 2008 - Modern technology and surging oil prices have suddenly made the prospect of drilling in the remote, icy Chukchi Sea irresistible to the world's oil giants -- and that is worrying the Inupiat people who have lived at the sea's edge for centuries.
www.planetark.com: Arctic Oil Bonanza Worries Alaska Natives

Arctic seed vault opens doors for 100 million seeds
Longyearbyen, Svalbard/Norway, February 26, 2008 — The Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened today on a remote island in the Arctic Circle, receiving inaugural shipments of 100 million seeds that originated in over 100 countries. With the deposits ranging from unique varieties of major African and Asian food staples such as maize, rice, wheat, cowpea, and sorghum to European and South American varieties of eggplant, lettuce, barley, and potato, the first deposits into the seed vault represent the most comprehensive and diverse collection of food crop seeds being held anywhere in the world.
www.enn.com: Arctic seed vault opens doors for 100 million seeds

Bush budget calls for Arctic oil drilling in 2010
Washington, February 5, 2008 - The Bush administration on Monday again asked Congress to allow oil and natural gas drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, saying $7 billion could be raised in leasing fees from energy companies.
www.enn.com: Bush budget calls for Arctic oil drilling in 2010

Arctic ice-cap loss twice the size of France
Paris, (Fr), January 25, 2008 - The Arctic ice cap has shrunk by an area twice the size of France's land mass over the last two years, the Paris-based National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) said Wednesday. "The year 2008 promises to be a critical year on every level," said Jean-Claude Gascard, the body's research director and coordinator of European scientific mission Damocles, which is monitoring the effects of climate change across the Arctic.
www.reuters.com: Arctic ice-cap loss twice the size of France

Older Arctic Sea Ice Replaced By Young, Thin Ice
Boulder (Col/US), January 13, 2008 - A new study by University of Colorado at Boulder researchers indicates older, multi-year sea ice in the Arctic is giving way to younger, thinner ice, making it more susceptible to record summer sea-ice lows like the one that occurred in 2007.
www.sciencedaily.com: Older Arctic Sea Ice Replaced By Young, Thin Ice

Glaciers grew even when alligators lived in Arctic
Oslo, January 10, 2008 - Giant glaciers formed about 90 million years ago when alligators thrived in the Arctic, overturning the belief that all ice melts in a "super greenhouse" climate, researchers said on Thursday.
www.reuters.com: Glaciers grew even when alligators lived in Arctic

Arctic ice melt Canada's top weather concern in 2007
Montreal, December 27, 2007 - The "shocking" record loss of Arctic sea ice was Canada's top weather event in 2007, Canada's environment ministry said Thursday.
www.terradaily.com: Arctic ice melt Canada's top weather concern in 2007

McCall glacier melt links the Arctic eras
London / Anchorage, December 25, 2007 - "Sometimes you'd just land and set up your equipment," recalls Carl Benson, "and the pilot sees clouds rolling in and says 'I'd better get out of here, do you want to come with me or do you want to stay'?
"So you push the 'plane round so they can take off, and you don't know when you're going to see them again."
Dr Benson is one of a band of scientists hardier than most who have spent decades working to understand the finer workings of glaciers.
news.bbc.co.uk: McCall glacier melt links the Arctic eras

Russians wake up on Svalbard

Lenin in Barentsburg

Barentsburg (SVA), December 17, 2007 - Russia is beefing up its presence on Svalbard, another sign that Moscow wants its presence felt in strategic Arctic areas.
www.aftenposten.no: Russians wake up on Svalbard

Notes from The Gathering #5: Arctic sea ice: is it tipped yet?
San Francisco, December 14, 2007 - The summer of 2007 was apocalyptic for Arctic sea ice. The coverage and thickness of sea ice in the Arctic has been declining steadily over the past few decades, but this year the ice lost an area about the size of Texas, reaching its minimum on about the 16th of September. Arctic sea ice seems to me the best and more imminent example of a tipping point in the climate system. A series of talks aimed to explain the reason for the meltdown.
www.realclimate.org: Arctic sea ice: is it tipped yet?

The Big Melt: Arctic sets records on all fronts

North-West passage fully open

San Francisco, December 14, 2007 - Scientists have detailed what was an extraordinary melting season in the Arctic during the summer of 2007.
The record withdrawal of sea ice has been well documented, but the region also hit a number of other firsts.
Some ocean temperature measurements were unprecedented, and 2007 also set a new record for melting snow over the Greenland ice sheet.
www.bbc.co.uk: Arctic sets records on all fronts
www.oc.nps.navy.mil: Naval Arctic Nodelling Effort
www.oc.nps.navy.mil / Wieslaw Maslowski: Toward Prediction of Environmental Arctic Change (pdf 4 mb)

Without its insulating ice cap, Arctic surface waters warm to as much as 5 C above average

San Francisco, December 12, 2007 - Record-breaking amounts of ice-free water have deprived the Arctic of more of its natural "sunscreen" than ever in recent summers. The effect is so pronounced that sea surface temperatures rose to 5 C above 'normal'.
www.physorg.com: Without its insulating ice cap, Arctic surface waters warm to as much as 5 C above average

Arctic summers ice-free 'by 2013'
San Francisco, December 12, 2007 - Scientists in the US have presented one of the most dramatic forecasts yet for the disappearance of Arctic sea ice.
Their latest modelling studies indicate northern polar waters could be ice-free in summers within just 5-6 years.
news.bbc.co.uk: Arctic summers ice-free 'by 2013'
www.telegraph.co.uk: Arctic ice 'could be gone in five years'

Scientists: 'Arctic Is Screaming,' Global Warming May Have Passed Tipping Point
Washington, December 12, 2007 - An already relentless melting of the Arctic greatly accelerated this summer, a warning sign that some scientists worry could mean global warming has passed an ominous tipping point. One even speculated that summer sea ice would be gone in five years.
www.foxnews.com: Scientists: 'Arctic Is Screaming,' Global Warming May Have Passed Tipping Point

Norway's Arctic islands at their hottest since Viking era: scientists
Oslo, December 11, 2007 - Norway's Arctic archipelago of Svalbard recently experienced its highest temperatures since the end of the Viking Age around 800 years ago, the Norwegian Polar Institute said Tuesday. Analysis of ice taken from Lomonosovfonna, one of the highest glaciers on Svalbard, confirms that recent local temperatures have been at their highest since the 13th century, the institute said in a statement.
www.terradaily.com: Norway's Arctic islands at their hottest since Viking era: scientists

The melting Arctic

London, November 20, 2007 - A new exhibition of Arctic photography by Louise Murray draws attention to the plight of the polar ice cap and its inhabitants.
travel.timesonline.co.uk: The melting Arctic
www.louisemurray.com

Changing severe weather in the Arctic
Bergen, November 7 2007 - How will global warming influence severe weather in Arctic regions? A new study published in Climate Dynamics by Bjerknes Centre researcher Erik Kolstad and Tom Bracegirdle of British Antarctic Survey makes use of IPPC climate model data to answer this question.
Arctic weather has many faces. While the ice sheet surrounding the North Pole is frequently calm and cloudy, the warm regions with open ocean experience severe weather such as explosive mid-latitude storms, polar lows, arctic fronts and roll clouds.
www.bjerknes.uib.no: Changing severe weather in the Arctic
www.springerlink.com:Marine cold-air outbreaks in the future: an assessment of IPCC AR4 model results for the Northern Hemisphere

Nordic nations sound alarm over melting Arctic
Oslo, October 31, 2007 - Nordic nations sounded the alarm on Wednesday about a quickening melt of Arctic ice and said the thaw might soon prove irreversible because of global warming.
Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway and Iceland also urged all governments to agree before the end of 2009 a broader U.N. plan to curb greenhouse gases in succession to the Kyoto Protocol.
uk.reuters.com: Nordic nations sound alarm over melting Arctic

Less Arctic ice means higher risks, experts warn

Washington, October 26 2007 - The International Ice Charting Working Group predicts more marine transportation in the Arctic as sea ice continues to diminish and warns of "significant hazards to navigation," according to a statement released yesterday.
www.esa.int: Less Arctic ice means higher risks, experts warn

At the Poles, Melting Occurring at Alarming Rate
Washington, October 22 2007 - For scientists, global warming is a disaster movie, its opening scenes set at the poles of Earth. The epic already has started. And it's not fiction.
The scenes are playing, at the start, in slow motion: The relentless grip of the Arctic Ocean that defied man for centuries is melting away. The sea ice reaches only half as far as it did 50 years ago. In the summer of 2006, it shrank to a record low; this summer the ice pulled back even more, by an area nearly the size of Alaska. Where explorer Robert Peary just 102 years ago saw "a great white disk stretching away apparently infinitely" from Ellesmere Island, there is often nothing now but open water. Glaciers race into the sea from the island of Greenland, beginning an inevitable rise in the oceans.
www.washingtonpost.com: At the Poles, Melting Occurring at Alarming Rate
www.washingtonpost.com: In the Greenhouse, Confronting a Changing Climate
www.washingtonpost.com: The Threat of Climate Change

'Warm wind' hits Arctic climate
Washington, October 17, 2007 - The Arctic is being hit by melting ice, hotter air and dying wildlife, according to a US government report on the impact of global warming there.
A new wind circulation pattern is blowing more warm air towards the North Pole than in the 20th Century, scientists found.
Shrubs are now growing in tundra areas while caribou herds are dwindling in Canada and parts of Alaska.
The report stresses that the fate of the Arctic affects the entire planet.
news.bbc.co.uk: 'Warm wind' hits Arctic climate

Bleak U.S. "report card" finds warming Arctic
Washington, October 17, 2007 - A bleak "report card" on global warming's Arctic impact released on Wednesday found less ice, hotter air and dying wildlife, and stressed that what happens around the North Pole affects the entire planet.
www.reuters.com: Bleak U.S. "report card" finds warming Arctict

Arctic ‘Report Card’ Shows Continued Climate Changes
Washington, October 17, 2007 - The first update of a report tracking the state of the Arctic indicates that some changes in that region are larger and occurring faster than those previously predicted by climate models, while other indicators show some stabilizing. The “Report Card” was issued today by an international team of scientists, including a NOAA lead author.
www.noaanews.noaa.gov: Arctic ‘Report Card’ Shows Continued Climate Changes
www.arctic.noaa.gov/reportcard/: Arctic Report Card 2007

Ice melt raises passage tension
Montreal, October 8 2007 - Less ice makes it easier to get at the Arctic's resources. In another sign of potential friction in the warming Arctic, Canada has warned that it will step up patrols of the North West Passage.
news.bbc.co.uk: Ice melt raises passage tension

Melting Ice Pack Displaces Alaska Walrus
Ancorage, (Alaska) October 8 2007 - (ap) - Thousands of walrus have appeared on Alaska's northwest coast in what conservationists are calling a dramatic consequence of global warming melting the Arctic sea ice.
www.physorg.com: Melting Ice Pack Displaces Alaska Walrus

Record 22C temperatures in Arctic heatwave

London, October 3 - Parts of the Arctic have experienced an unprecedented heatwave this summer, with one research station in the Canadian High Arctic recording temperatures above 20C, about 15C higher than the long-term average. The high temperatures were accompanied by a dramatic melting of Arctic sea ice in September to the lowest levels ever recorded, a further indication of how sensitive this region of the world is to global warming. Scientists from Queen's University in Ontario watched with amazement as their thermometers touched 22C during their July field expedition at the High Arctic camp on Melville Island, usually one of the coldest places in North America.
environment.independent.co.uk: Record 22C temperatures in Arctic heatwave
09252007: Arctic heat wave stuns climate change researchers

Arctic melt threatens indigenous people
London, October 2 - A "grab for the Arctic" will add strains to indigenous hunters' cultures as a record melt opens the icy region to shipping or oil and gas exploration, an Inuit activist said on Tuesday.
www.reuters.com: Arctic melt threatens indigenous people

Arctic ice retreats into uncharted territory
Scientists see dramatic drop in Arctic sea ice / Arctic sea ice shatters record low

Click on image for instant animation of 2007 sea ice decline. The picture displays record minimum sea ice extent of September 14 2007.

Colorado (USA), October 1 2007, - Arctic sea ice during the 2007 melt season plummeted to the lowest levels since satellite measurements began in 1979, according to researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder's National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).
The average sea ice extent for the month of September was 4.28 million square kilometers (1.65 million square miles), the lowest September on record, shattering the previous record for the month, set in 2005, by 23 percent.
A new NASA-led study found a 23-percent loss in the extent of the Arctic's thick, year-round sea ice cover during the past two winters. This drastic reduction of perennial winter sea ice is the primary cause of this summer's fastest-ever sea ice retreat on record and subsequent smallest-ever extent of total Arctic coverage.
NASA has created new images in support of these and other reports about the remarkable decrease in sea ice this summer. Still images and video are available now for download in high-definition broadcast quality.
Animation: Arctic Sea Ice Minimum, 1979-2007
Animation: A closer look at Arctic sea ice from space in high resolution
Animation: Ice albedo feedback animation
nsidc.org: Arctic sea ice shatters record low (Data incl graphics)
www.nasa.gov: NASA Examines Arctic Sea Ice Changes Leading to Record Low in 2007
www.eurekalert.org: Arctic sea ice shatters record low
www.reuters.com: Scientists see dramatic drop in Arctic sea ice
www.ipy.org: Sea ice
www.terradaily.com: Cold War over North Pole, and other Polar news

Arctic ice island breaks in half
Anchorage, (Alaska) October 1, 2007 - The giant Ayles Ice Island drifting off Canada's northern shores has broken in two - far earlier than expected.
In a season of record summer melting in the region, the two chunks have moved rapidly through the water - one of them covering 98km (61 miles) in a week.
news.bbc.co.uk: Arctic ice island breaks in half

Arctic thaw may be at "tipping point"

Oslo / London, September 28, 2007 - A record melt of Arctic summer sea ice this month may be a sign that global warming is reaching a critical trigger point that could accelerate the northern thaw, some scientists say.
"The reason so much (of the Arctic ice) went suddenly is that it is hitting a tipping point that we have been warning about for the past few years," James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, told Reuters.
The Arctic summer sea ice shrank by more than 20 percent below the previous 2005 record low in mid-September to 4.13 million sq km (1.6 million sq miles), according to a 30-year satellite record.
Some climate tipping points may already have been passed, and others may be closer than we thought, say UK-scientists. Runaway loss of Arctic sea ice may now be inevitable. Even more worrying, and very likely, is the collapse of the giant Greenland ice sheet. So said Tim Lenton of the University of East Anglia, speaking at a meeting in August on complexity in nature, organised by the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge.
Lenton warned the meeting that global warming might trigger tipping points that could cause runaway warming or catastrophic sea-level rise. The risks are far greater than suggested in the current IPCC report, he says.
Yet climate modellers are in a quandary. As models get better and forecasts more alarming, their confidence in the detail of their predictions is evaporating.
www.reuters.com: Arctic thaw may be at "tipping point"

Hansens Earlier warnings:
Hansen: On a slippery slope to hell... or how much global warming constitutes "Dangerous anthropogenic interference" (giss/nasa pdf)
See the earlier report "The consensus on Climate Change / Hansen’s 1988 projections (Read all...)

About Tipping Points:
Timothy Lenton: Tipping Points in the Earth system
Jim Hansen: The Tipping Point

'Remarkable' drop in arctic sea ice raises questions

Because of the changining albedo the north is warming up rapidly after sea ice loss. Click on the picture for instant animation.

September 25, 2007 - Melting Arctic sea ice has shrunk to a 29-year low, significantly below the minimum set in 2005, according to preliminary figures from the National Snow and Ice Data Center, part of the University of Colorado at Boulder. NASA scientists, who have been observing the declining Arctic sea ice cover since the earliest measurements in 1979, are working to understand this sudden speed-up of sea ice decline and what it means for the future of Earth's northern polar region.
www.nasa.gov: 'Remarkable' drop in arctic sea ice raises questions

Arctic heat wave stuns climate change researchers
September 25, 2007 - Unprecedented warm temperatures in the High Arctic this past summer were so extreme that researchers with a Queen’s University-led climate change project have begun revising their forecasts.
“Everything has changed dramatically in the watershed we observed,” reports Geography professor Scott Lamoureux, the leader of an International Polar Year project announced yesterday in Nunavut by Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl. “It’s something we’d envisioned for the future – but to see it happening now is quite remarkable.”
qnc.queensu.ca: Arctic heat wave stuns climate change researchers

Extent of sea ice in Arctic sets record low

The MODIS on the Terra satellite captured this image of a section of the Northwest Passage, located between Candada and Greenland, on September 15, 2007. The Northwest Passage is a sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans - it threads through the Arctic Ocean and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, along the northern coast of North America. ( Photo: Modis)

London / New York, September, September 21/23 2007 - The extent of sea ice in the Arctic has already hit a record low this season, the gloomiest, if not doomiest, since satellite records began in the 1970s.
The world will likely have to wait a month or so for the final numbers to be released since sea ice typically stops melting by the end of September, but researchers are already worried by the extra 380,000 square miles or so of sea ice that's melted this year beyond the record set in 2005.
"I'm shocked daily, looking at the maps," said Marika Holland, sea-ice researcher at the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research, earlier this month.
"Where it's going to bottom out, I wouldn't hazard a guess." And much of the ice that's left is roughly half as thick as it was in 2001, according to a recent German study.
If that's not enough, the European Space Agency has said that Arctic melting this year has also entirely opened up the fabled Northwest Passage, a shipping shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans that has until now been "historically impassable." (http://gristmill.grist.org/)
www.guardian.co.uk: Disappearing Melting Ice Cap in 12 pictures
www.bbc.co.uk: Ice withdrawal 'shatters record'
www.nature.com: Arctic sea ice at record low
www.planetark.com: Arctic Summer Ice Thickness Halves to 1 Metre
news.bbc.co.uk: Extent of sea ice in Arctic sets record low, keeps on melting
www.sciam.com: The North Pole Is Melting
September 14: Satellites witness lowest Arctic ice coverage in history

Sea Ice Observations

Fairbanks, Alaska, September 17, 2007 - Two IARC scientists have sailed on recent missions over the northern seas, each experiencing different aspects of waters that seem to be warming. The summer of 2007 has set a new satellite-era (since 1979) record for the smallest amount of ice covering the Arctic Ocean.
www.iarc.uaf.edu: Unusually thin, rotten ice....

Satellites witness lowest Arctic ice coverage in history

Bruxelles, September 14/17, 2007 - The area covered by sea ice in the Arctic has shrunk to its lowest level this week since satellite measurements began nearly 30 years ago, opening up the Northwest Passage -- a long-sought short cut between Europe and Asia that has been historically impassable.
Rising sea-surface temperatures in the Barents Sea, northeast of Scandinavia, are the prime cause of the retreating winter ice edge over the past 26 years, according to research by Jennifer Francis, associate research professor at Rutgers' Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences. The recent decreases in winter ice cover is clear evidence that Arctic pack ice will continue on its trajectory of rapid decline, Francis said.
www.esa.int: Satellites witness lowest Arctic ice coverage in history
nsidc.org: Arctic Sea Ice News Fall 2007
www.physorg.com: Arctic Ice Melt Opens Northwest Passage
www.enn.com: Arctic Ocean Sea-ice Getting Thinner
Arctic ice retreating more quickly than computer models project

The appalling fate of the polar bear, symbol of the Arctic
London, September 9 2007 - It has been declared at risk by conservation groups. Yet rich Westerners are paying thousands of dollars for the privilege of shooting an animal whose very existence is already threatened by environmental disaster.
independent.co.uk: The appalling fate of the polar bear, symbol of the Arctic
www.cnn.com: Scientists: Dramatic sea ice loss by 2050
news.bbc.co.uk: US predicts polar bear meltdown
www.sciencedaily.com: Report: Greenland ice change means trouble
independent.co.uk: Protect the polar bear, save the planet

Arctic regional sea ice to decline 40 percent before 2050
Washington, September 6 2007 - A new study by NOAA scientists shows that areal sea-ice coverage of the Arctic Ocean will decline by more than 40 percent before the summer of 2050, compared to a 1979-1999 base period.
www.noaanews.noaa.gov: Arctic regional sea ice to decline 40 percent before 2050

Loss of Arctic ice leaves experts stunned
London, September 4/6 2007 - The Arctic ice cap has collapsed at an unprecedented rate this summer and levels of sea ice in the region now stand at record lows, scientists have announced. Experts say they are "stunned" by the loss of ice, with an area almost twice as big as the UK disappearing in the last week alone. So much ice has melted this summer that the Northwest passage across the top of Canada is fully navigable, and observers say the Northeast passage along Russia's Arctic coast could open later this month.
www.guardian.co.uk: Loss of Arctic ice leaves experts stunned
www.noaanews.noaa.gov 0906: Arctic regional sea ice to decline 40 percent before 2050

Tipping points in the Earth system

London, August 30, 2007 - (by Timothy M. Lenton) - The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its many excellent reports tends to portray climate change as a smooth transition. Although the projections are rarely straight lines the underlying system and its responses appear ‘linear’ (in mathematical terms). There are, of course, exceptions to this, notable ones being the possible collapse of the Atlantic thermohaline circulation or irreversible melt of the Greenland ice sheet, which both get significant attention in the latest IPCC report (IPCC, 2007). These represent large scale ‘non-linear’ components of the Earth system.
researchpages.net: Tipping points in the Earth system

Ice, Cold, Ecological Risks May Hamper Arctic Oil Rush
August 24 2007 - The prospect of vast oil and gas reserves beneath the Arctic Ocean has prompted countries to begin evaluating exploration options to assess what's really at stake.
news.nationalgeographic.com: Part 2/Ice, Cold, Ecological Risks May Hamper Arctic Oil Rush
news.nationalgeographic.com: Part 1/Arctic Oil Rush Sparks Battles Over Seafloor

Islands emerge as Arctic ice shrinks to record low

Ny Alesund, Svalbard/Spitsbergen

Ny Alesund, Norway, August 20 (Reuters) - Previously unknown islands are appearing as Arctic summer sea ice shrinks to record lows, raising questions about whether global warming is outpacing U.N. projections, experts said.
www.alertnet.org: Islands emerge as Arctic ice shrinks to record low

Denmark eyes North Pole riches

Copenhagen , August 17, 2007 - "Dragons be here!" That is how the unknown region of the North Pole was marked on ancient Danish maps.
Much still remains to be mapped and Denmark is engaged in that work now, with a new polar expedition.
news.bbc.co.uk: Denmark eyes North Pole riches

Arctic Sea Ice Expected to Hit Record Low in September
Oregon, August 17, 2007 - The extent of Arctic sea ice will likely have melted to a record low this September partially due to man-made greenhouse gas emissions, researchers at the University of Colorado said.
earthobservatory.nasa.gov: Sea Ice Retreat in the East Siberian Sea
www.enn.com: Arctic Sea Ice Expected to Hit Record Low in September
www.planetark.com: Islands Emerge as Arctic Ice Shrinks to Record Low
www.realclimate.org: Arctic sea ice watch

Eco anxiety: In Despair Over the Polar Bear
Oregon, August 17, 2007 - Pamela Larsen, 41, a mother of two young girls, in Mt. Hood, Ore., gets a stomachache every time she looks up at the volcano nearby: the glaciers at its peak have definitely been receding over the years. As the mountainside gets browner and browner — evidence of climate change — the knot in Larsen's gut tightens....
Eco anxiety: Concern for the worsening state of the environment

Arctic sea ice watch...
August 10, 2007 - A few people have already remarked on some pretty surprising numbers in Arctic sea ice extent this year (the New York Times has also noticed). The minimum extent is usually in early to mid September, but this year, conditions by Aug 9 had already beaten all previous record minima.
Given that there is at least a few more weeks of melting to go, it looks like the record set in 2005 will be unequivocally surpassed. It could be interesting to follow especially in light of model predictions discussed previously.
www.realclimate.org: Arctic sea ice watch

The North Pole: A new imperial battleground
London, July 31/August 4 2007 - It is one of the planet's last great wildernesses. But suddenly everybody wants a piece of the Arctic - or more specifically, the reserves of oil and gas below the seabed, which have become a lucrative target for the surrounding powers.
www.economist.com 0803: Gold rush under the ice
news.bbc.co.uk 0801: Russian subs near Arctic target
english.pravda.ru 0801: Russia aims to lay claim to North Pole natural resources
environment.independent.co.uk: The North Pole: A new imperial battleground

Russia Claims the North Pole
Moskwa, July 12, 2007 - President Vladimir Putin has long promised to restore Russian greatness and build an "energy empire." But until now, his empire-building had been confined to taking control of corporations operating on his turf, buying into businesses abroad, and blackmailing former Soviet Republics who dared vote against Moscow-backed candidates, moved to join NATO or acted in otherwise uppity ways. But Putin's imperial ambitions have recently added an element of classic 19th century-style territorial expansion: Late last month, Moscow signaled its intentions to annex the entire North Pole, an area twice the size of France with Belgium and Switzerland thrown in — except all of it under water.
www.time.com: China's Premier Urges Action In Energy-Saving Drive

Melting ice drives polar bear mothers to land
Washington, July 11 2007 - Melting sea ice is driving mother polar bears onto dry land to give birth in northern Alaska, U.S. Geological Survey scientists reported on Thursday.
www.reuters.uk: Melting ice drives polar bear mothers to land

Global warming is evaporating Arctic ponds, new study shows
Kingston, Ont (Canada), July 1, 2007 -- High Arctic ponds -- the most common source of surface water in many polar regions -- are now beginning to evaporate due to recent climate warming, say two of Canada’s leading environmental scientists. Some polar sites 'have already crossed the final ecological threshold,' says Queen's prof.
www.nytimes.com: Global warming is evaporating Arctic ponds, new study shows

Russia eyes vast Arctic territory
London, June 26, 2007 - Russia may lay a claim to some of the energy riches of the Arctic. Russian geologists say they have data that would support a claim to about 1.2m sq km (463,000 sq miles) of energy-rich territory in the Arctic.
news.bbc.co.uk: Russia eyes vast Arctic territory

Icebergs are 'ecological hotspot'
London, June 22, 2007 - Drifting icebergs are "ecological hotspots" that enable the surrounding waters to absorb an increased volume of carbon dioxide, a study suggests.
news.bbc.co.uk: Icebergs are 'ecological hotspot'

Arctic spring comes weeks earlier than a decade ago
Copenhagen / London, June 18 2007 - Spring in the Arctic is arriving "weeks earlier" than a decade ago, a team of Danish researchers have reported. Earlier ice melt could disrupt the area's ecosystems, the study says.
news.bbc.co.uk: Arctic spring's 'rapid advance'
environment.independent.co.uk: Climate change brings early spring in the Arctic
environment.guardian.co.uk: Early springs bring problems for the creatures of the high Arctic
www.physorg.com: Arctic spring comes weeks earlier than a decade ago
www.sciam.com: Winter ends in the Arctic earlier than a decade ago

Dirty snow may warm Arctic as much as greenhouse gases
Irvine, (Calif/USA), June 6, 2007 - The global warming debate has focused on carbon dioxide emissions, but scientists at UC Irvine have determined that a lesser-known mechanism – dirty snow – can explain one-third or more of the Arctic warming primarily attributed to greenhouse gases.
today.uci.edu: Dirty snow may warm Arctic as much as greenhouse gases

World Environment Day homes in on fear of melting ice

Tromsoe, Norway - June 5, 2007 - The world marked Environment Day on Tuesday with cheerful events like tree-planting and solar cooking in the heat of Asia, but also gloomier talk in the not-so-frozen north of melting polar caps.
A new United Nations report says melting glaciers and ice sheets caused by global warming could disrupt drinking and agricultural water supplies for up to 40 percent of the world's population. The report released Monday said the depletion of ice caps could also contribute to global warming because the ice sheets reflect the sun's heat away from the Earth's surface. It also warns that such low-lying countries as Bangladesh and Indonesia could face severe flooding by melting.
www.reuters.com: World Environment Day homes in on fear of melting ice
www.reuters.com: Melting Ice, Snow to Hit Livelihoods Worldwide - UN
www.aftenposten.no: Climate experts sound new alarms in Tromsø
www.unep.org: Melting Ice-A Hot Topic? New UNEP Report Shows Just How Hot It's Getting
www.unep.org: Melting Ice, a Hot Topic?

Limits put on Arctic cruises
Oslo, June 4 2007 - Norway's government plans to restrict cruise traffic around the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, and prohibit the use of heavy fuel oil.
"The goal is to hinder spills that could have hugely negative consequences for the environment in the fragile and valuable areas around Svalbard," said Minister of the Environment Helen Bjørnøy, who is in Tromsø this week in connection with the UN's World Environment Day and International Climate Conference.
www.aftenposten.no: Limits put on Arctic cruises

Polar bears at risk as warming thaws icy home
Longyearbyen, Norway (Reuters) - May 21 2007 - Time may be running out for polar bears as global warming melts the ice beneath their paws.
Restrictions or bans on hunting in recent decades have helped protect many populations of the iconic Arctic carnivore, but many experts say the long-term outlook is bleak.
An estimated 20,000-25,000 bears live around the Arctic -- in Canada, Russia, Alaska, Greenland and Norway -- and countries are struggling to work out ways to protect them amid forecasts of an accelerating thaw.
www.cnn.com: Alarming acceleration in CO2 emissions worldwide

Schwarzenegger invited to symposium on Svalbard

May 15, 2007 - Norway's Minister of the Environment Helen Bjørnøy has invited Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to a summit meeting at arctic Svalbard.
The news was reported by web site abcnyheter.no, which cited confirmation from senior ministry adviser Inger Johanne Wiese.
www.aftenposten.no: Schwarzenegger invited to symposium on the future of Svalbard
www.aftenposten.no: Svalbard ice melting

Half of Barents ice is gone
Oslo, May 8 2007 - A new report on the state of the Barents Sea is setting off new alarms within Norway’s government and the institute that tracks developments in the Arctic.
www.aftenposten.no: Half of Barents ice is gone

Arctic ice retreating more quickly than computer models project
Washington, April 30 2007 - A new study published in Geophysical Research Letters concludes that Arctic sea ice is melting faster than indicated by the computer models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The shrinking of summertime ice is about 30 years ahead of IPCC projections.
www.ucar.edu: Arctic Ice Retreating More Quickly Than Computer Models Project
www.jpl.nasa.gov: NASA Finds Arctic Replenished Very Little Thick Sea Ice in 2005
www.agu.org: Arctic ice retreating more quickly than computer models project
news.bbc.co.uk: Earth - melting in the heat?
news.bbc.co.uk: Climate change around the world

Canadian north offers 'ground zero' view of global warming
April 16, 2007 — IQALUIT, Nunavut — Inuit hunters are falling through thinning ice and dying. Dolphins are being spotted for the first time. There's not enough snow to build igloos for shelter during hunts.
www.usatoday.com: Canadian north offers 'ground zero' view of global warming

Russia Tries to Save Polar Bears With Legal Hunt
Vankarem, (Russia), April 16, 2007 — Here on the frozen edge of the country’s Arctic expanse, where a changing climate has brought polar bears into greater contact with people, Russia has embraced a counterintuitive method of trying to preserve the creatures: hunting them, legally.
www.nytimes.com: Russia Tries to Save Polar Bears With Legal Hunt

Arctic Fox May Be Left Behind By Warming, Study Suggests
April 10, 2007 - Arctic foxes in Europe died out as the last ice age ended, suggesting many cold-loving animals are much more vulnerable to global warming than previously believed.
news.nationalgeographic.com: Arctic Fox May Be Left Behind By Warming, Study Suggests

Antarctic melting may be speeding up
Hobart, March 23, 2007 - (Reuters) - Rising sea levels and melting polar ice-sheets are at upper limits of projections, leaving some human population centers already unable to cope, top world scientists say as they analyze latest satellite data.
www.reuters.com: Antarctic melting may be speeding up
www.planetark.com: Southern Ocean Current Faces Slowdown Threat

Gravity Measurements Help Melt Ice Mysteries
Greenbelt (MD/USA), March 23, 2007 - Greenland is cold and hot. It's a deep freezer storing 10 percent of Earth's ice and a subject of fevered debate. If something should melt all that ice, global sea level could rise as much as 7 meters (23 feet). Greenland and Antarctica - Earth's two biggest icehouses - are important indicators of climate change and a high priority for research, as highlighted by the newly inaugurated International Polar Year.
Just a few years ago, the world's climate scientists predicted that Greenland wouldn't have much impact at all on sea level in the coming decades. But recent measurements show that Greenland's ice cap is melting much faster than expected.
www.nasa.gov: Gravity Measurements Help Melt Ice Mysteries

Arctic ocean may lose all its ice by 2040, disrupting global weather
London, March 16, 2007 - Rapidly thinning Arctic sea ice may have reached a tipping point that threatens to disrupt global weather patterns, bringing intense winter storms and heavier rainfall to western Europe, scientists warn today.
environment.guardian.co.uk: Arctic ocean may lose all its ice by 2040, disrupting global weather
www.sciencemag.org: Polar Science
www.sciencemag.org: Momentous Changes at the Poles
priceofoil.org: Winter “Warmest on Record” As Arctic Reaches “Tipping Point”

Collapse of Arctic sea ice 'has reached tipping-point'
London, March 16, 2007 - A catastrophic collapse of the Arctic sea ice could lead to radical climate changes in the northern hemisphere according to scientists who warn that the rapid melting is at a "tipping point" beyond which it may not recover.
www.independent.co.uk: Collapse of Arctic sea ice 'has reached tipping-point'

Pollution From U.S., Europe, Others Speeding Arctic Warming, Study Says
March 16, 2007 Pollution from industrialized countries is heating the Arctic atmosphere faster than any region on Earth, a new study warns.
news.nationalgeographic.com: Pollution From U.S., Europe, Others Speeding Arctic Warming, Study Says

Asia smog fuelling Pacific storms 'will melt Arctic ice'
London, March 6, 2007 - Smog and air pollution from Asian cities have intensified storms over the Pacific Ocean, which will result in increased warming of the Arctic, scientists have warned. They report that the number of storm clouds in the region has increased by up to a half over the last 20 years as rapidly industrialised cities in countries such as India and China burn more coal as they grow.
environment.guardian.co.uk: Asia smog fuelling Pacific storms 'will melt Arctic ice'

Svalbard ice melting

Oslo, 1 March 2007 - The glaciers on arctic Svalbard are melting faster than researchers believed and the pace has accelerated over the past five years.
Over 16 cubic kilometers of ice from the many Svalbard glaciers vanishes each year. At the same time record summer temperatures have been measured in Longyearbyen, and snowfall has declined.
www.aftenposten.no: Svalbard ice melting

Climate change: scientists warn it may be too late to save the ice caps
London, February 20, 2007 - A critical meltdown of ice sheets and severe sea level rise could be inevitable because of global warming, the world's scientists are preparing to warn their governments. New studies of Greenland and Antarctica have forced a UN expert panel to conclude there is a 50% chance that widespread ice sheet loss "may no longer be avoided" because of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
environment.guardian.co.uk: Scientists warn it may be too late to save the ice caps
news.independent.co.uk 160207: Scientists sound alarm over melting Antarctic ice sheets

Alaska natives left out in the cold
Anchorage, January 4 2007 - While the rest of the world argues about the best way to curb future climate change, says Patricia Cochran in this week's Green Room, native communities within the Arctic Circle are having to draw on their own ancestral strengths to adapt to a rapidly changing world.
www.bbc.co.uk: Alaska natives left out in the cold

Scientists plead for action to save poles from 'tipping point' disaster
Pollution Soaring to Crisis Levels in Arctic
Svalbard, March 12, 2006 - Researchers have uncovered compelling evidence that indicates Earth's most vulnerable regions - the North and South Poles - are poised on the brink of a climatic disaster.
The scientists, at an atmospheric monitoring station in the Norwegian territory of Svalbard, have found that levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere near the North Pole are now rising at an unprecedented pace.
In 1990 this key cause of global warming was rising at a rate of 1 part per million (ppm). Recently, that rate reached 2 ppm per year. Now, scientists at the Mount Zeppelin monitoring station have discovered it is rising at between 2.5 and 3 ppm.
observer.guardian.co.uk: Pollution Soaring to Crisis Levels in Arctic
www.commondreams.org: Idem

The Tipping Point?
December 6, 2005 - (by Jim Hansen) - The Earth's climate is nearing, but has not passed, a tipping point beyond which it will be impossible to avoid climate change with far-ranging undesirable consequences. These include not only the loss of the Arctic as we know it, with all that implies for wildlife and indigenous peoples, but losses on a much vaster scale due to rising seas.
Ocean levels will increase slowly at first, as losses at the fringes of Greenland and Antarctica due to accelerating ice streams are nearly balanced by increased snowfall and ice sheet thickening in the ice sheet interiors.
But as Greenland and West Antarctic ice is softened and lubricated by meltwater, and as buttressing ice shelves disappear because of a warming ocean, the balance will tip toward the rapid disintegration of ice sheets.
The Earth's history suggests that with warming of two to three degrees, the new sea level will include not only most of the ice from Greenland and West Antarctica, but a portion of East Antarctica, raising the sea level by twenty-five meters, or eighty feet. Within a century, coastal dwellers will be faced with irregular flooding associated with storms. They will have to continually rebuild above a transient water level.
This grim scenario can be halted if the growth of greenhouse gas emissions is slowed in the first quarter of this century.
(From a presentation to the American Geophysical Union, December 6, 2005)