Scientists warn that the North Pole could be free of ice in just five years’ time instead of 60

[IDemo]

Meltdown In The Arctic Is Speeding Up

Published on Monday, August 11, 2008 by The Guardian/UK
by Robin McKie

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.

As a result, scientists say that the disappearance of sea ice at the North Pole could exceed last year’s record loss. More than a million square kilometres melted over the summer of 2007 as global warming tightened its grip on the Arctic. But such destruction could now be matched, or even topped, this year.

‘It is a neck-and-neck race between 2007 and this year over the issue of ice loss,’ said Mark Serreze, of the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Boulder, Colorado. ‘We thought Arctic ice cover might recover after last year’s unprecedented melting - and indeed the picture didn’t look too bad last month. Cover was significantly below normal, but at least it was up on last year.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/aug/10/climatechange.arctic

[SheilaT]

1. On the positive side,

just imagine the tourism possibilities.

Do I need the sarcasm thingy?

[kestrel91316]

2. Just imagine the oil drilling possibilities.

[phantom power]

3. Imagine the war-for-drilling-rights possibilities.

[SheilaT]

5. How deep is the water there?

With no ice cover? Are there practical limitations on how deep the water can be before drilling isn't feasible?

I still think cruises to the North Pole in the summer could be a huge tourist draw.

[jberryhill]

12. Just as long as you call it "eco tourism"...

...then you can haul folks in planes and boats into any fragile environment you'd like.

[tom_paine]

6. Oh, I don't know. Sarcasm aside, we are talking about some serious tourist opportunties.

Let me say before I start that I am not being sarcastic. I am willing to bet that many E/E denizens are avid hikers, bikers, climbers, and trekkers. I am speaking of them (and myself). Stipulated that climate change is happening, that we are even now probably past the point of no return, and that said ships and planes are sailing and flying anyway (yes, a poor rationalization, I know, but for the sake of argument...), that many of us do our journeys to natural, unspoiled, distant vistas to feel the numinous. That sense of tremendous, jaw-dropping, indescribable awe that comes with gazing silently over nature's grandest constructions.

Can one imagine a place that could insipre such feelings of the numinous than sailing the Northwest Passage, now open for the first time in thousands of years, perhaps hundreds of thousands or millions, as the Arctic has not been summer-ice-free in two million years, I believe? Sailing past those amazing glacially carved rocks and seeing what so few have ever seen before?

Don't get me wrong, the climate catatrophe is just that, and a tragedy. But the truth of your statement, sarcastic or no, got me to thinking.

Call me a selfish primate human prick if you wish, but yeah, I'd go for a sail through the Northwest Passage if it was being offered. It would be the numinous mixed in with some unimaginable sadness for what we had and what we killed, but I would go.

The sad truth is, that within 20 years or so, unless Peak Oil and/or Global Warming hits very fast, people likely WILL be able to book passage on such a summer cruise.

[XemaSab]

7. Aren't most of the islands up there virtually flat

and assuredly non-spectacular? :shrug:

[tom_paine]

8. You know...I guess I really don't know. Busted!

Caught in a web of my own ignorance!

Actually, now that I sit down and think of it, what I know and have seen about that area in terms of it's topography is from a couple TV specials on the recently opened NW Passage, one from an environmental point of view and one from an economic point of view.

One of the specials was about a voyage that a Canadian Icebreaker (though not much icebreaking was required during the 2007 filiming) made through the NW Passage with scientists and Native villagers.

I do seem to recall there being some scenic areas, not quite all flat though much of it was. I wish I'd paid more attention to the scenery now.

[XemaSab]

11. Don't take my word for it

It was just a guess. :shrug:

[Odin2005]

9. The eastern part of the Canadian arctic islands are extremely rugged.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Cordillera

Looks spectacular to me! :wow:

[XemaSab]

10. Cool! Thanks!

:D

[tom_paine]

14. OK then...let's go!

Actually, reality has already outstripped my meager predictions.

I just read an article, which I will go search for, which said the Native population of a small Arctic Coast town in Alaska was stunned when a German cruise ship of 400 pulled up and debarked due to the new ice-free conditions starting last year.

ON EDIT...here it is:


http://www.adn.com/opinion/view/story/489139.html

[jberryhill]

13. Yeah.. so is Holland...

Great bicycling, though. No hills.

[phantom power]

4. Ice free *this* year is still a possibility.