Summertime 2040 — the North Pole will be ice-free!
Global warming could melt the Arctic’s ice during the summer as
early as 2040, raising serious environmental as well as commercial and strategic
issues...
Global warming could melt the Arctic’s ice during the summer as
early as 2040, raising serious environmental as well as commercial and strategic
issues, experts said on
Monday.
“The effects of greenhouse warming are starting to rear their ugly head,” said Mark Serreze, a scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
Marika Holland, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, projects a slow, steady decline of Arctic ice as global warming continues, with a dramatic “tipping point” in about two decades.
The research, published by the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters [yesterday], found that the extent of sea ice each September could be reduced so abruptly that, within about 20 years, it may begin retreating four times faster than at any time in the observed record.
“The ice is actually quite stable until 2025 and then boom, it goes,” Holland told the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.
Although geographically remote from most of the inhabited world, melting Arctic ice could change the world’s ecosystem including sea and surface life, weather, shipping patterns and even national defense needs.
“There are winners and losers in this game but on balance I think it’s negative,” Serreze said.
Guess who gets to be winners and who gets to be losers?
“The effects of greenhouse warming are starting to rear their ugly head,” said Mark Serreze, a scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
Marika Holland, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, projects a slow, steady decline of Arctic ice as global warming continues, with a dramatic “tipping point” in about two decades.
The research, published by the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters [yesterday], found that the extent of sea ice each September could be reduced so abruptly that, within about 20 years, it may begin retreating four times faster than at any time in the observed record.
“The ice is actually quite stable until 2025 and then boom, it goes,” Holland told the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.
Although geographically remote from most of the inhabited world, melting Arctic ice could change the world’s ecosystem including sea and surface life, weather, shipping patterns and even national defense needs.
“There are winners and losers in this game but on balance I think it’s negative,” Serreze said.
Guess who gets to be winners and who gets to be losers?
Posted: Wed - December 13, 2006 at 10:47 AM