Fast Arctic
Thaw Threatens People, Polar Bears
By Alister Doyle
09 November, 2004
Reuters
Global warming is heating the Arctic almost
twice as fast as the rest of the planet in a thaw that threatens millions
of livelihoods and could wipe out polar bears by 2100, an eight-nation
report said on Monday.
The biggest survey
to date of the Arctic climate, by 250 scientists, said the accelerating
melt could be a foretaste of wider disruptions from a build-up of human
emissions of heat-trapping gases in the earth's atmosphere.
The "Arctic
climate is now warming rapidly and much larger changes are projected,"
according to the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA), funded by
the United States, Canada, Russia, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Norway
and Finland.
Arctic temperatures
are rising at almost twice the global average and could leap 4-7 Celsius
(7-13 Fahrenheit) by 2100, roughly twice the global average projected
by U.N. reports. Siberia and Alaska have already warmed by 2-3 C since
the 1950s.
Possible benefits
like more productive fisheries, easier access to oil and gas deposits
or trans-Arctic shipping routes would be outweighed by threats to indigenous
peoples and the habitats of animals and plants.
Sea ice around the
North Pole, for instance, could almost disappear in summer by the end
of the century. The extent of the ice has already shrunk by 15 percent
to 20 percent in the past 30 years.
"Polar bears
are unlikely to survive as a species if there is an almost complete
loss of summer sea-ice cover," the report said. On land, creatures
like lemmings, caribou, reindeer and snowy owls are being squeezed north
into a narrower range.
The report mainly
blames the melt on gases from fossil fuels burned in cars, factories
and power plants. The Arctic warms faster than the global average because
dark ground and water, once exposed, traps more heat than reflective
snow and ice.
Klaus Toepfer, head
of the U.N. Environment Program, said the Arctic changes were an early
warning. "What happens there is of concern for everyone because
Arctic warming and its consequences have worldwide implications,"
he said.
And the melting
of glaciers is expected to raise world sea levels by about 10 cm (4
inches) by the end of the century.
Many of the 4 million
people in the Arctic are already suffering. Buildings from Russia to
Canada have collapsed because of subsidence linked to thawing permafrost
that also destabilizes oil pipelines, roads and airports.
Indigenous hunters
are falling through thinning ice and say that prey from seals to whales
is harder to find. Rising levels of ultra-violet radiation may cause
cancers.
Changes under way
in the Arctic "present serious challenges to human health and food
security, and possibly even (to) the survival of some cultures,"
the report says.
Farming could benefit
in some areas, while more productive forests are moving north on to
former tundra. "There are not just negative consequences, there
will be new opportunities too," said Paal Prestrud, vice-chair
of ACIA.
Scientists will
meet in Iceland this week to discuss the report. Foreign ministers from
Arctic nations are due to meet in Iceland on Nov. 24 but diplomats say
they are deeply split with Washington least willing to make drastic
action.
President Bush pulled
the United States, the world's top polluter, out of the 126-nation Kyoto
protocol in 2001, arguing its curbs on greenhouse gas emissions were
too costly and unfairly excluded developing nations.
"Kyoto is only
a first step," said Norwegian Environment Minister Knut Hareide,
a strong backer of Kyoto. "The clear message from this report is
that Kyoto is not enough. We must reduce emissions much more in coming
decades."
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2004 Reuters Ltd