Panel Sees Growing
Melting
Arctic Threat
By Randolph Schmid
25 August , 2005
The Associated Press
The rate of ice melting in the Arctic
is increasing and a panel of researchers says it sees no natural process
that is likely to change that trend.
Within a century the melting could lead to summertime ice-free ocean
conditions not seen in the area in a million years, the group said Tuesday.
Melting of land-based
glaciers could take much longer but could raise the sea levels, potentially
affecting coastal regions worldwide.
And changes to the
permafrost could undermine buildings, drain water into bogs and release
additional carbon into the atmosphere.
"What really
makes the Arctic different from the rest of the non-polar world is the
permanent ice in the ground, in the ocean, and on land," said Jonathan
T. Overpeck of the University of Arizona and chairman of the National
Science Foundation's Arctic System Science Committee that issued the
report.
"We see all
of that ice melting already, and we envision that it will melt back
much more dramatically in the future, as we move towards this more permanent
ice-free state," Overpeck said in a statement.
The panel's findings
were published in Tuesday's issue of Eos, the weekly newspaper of the
American Geophysical Union.
The report comes
just days after environmental ministers and officials from 23 countries
met in Greenland to call on governments to stop arguing over global
warming and start acting.
That session was
held in the town of Ilulissat, near the edge of the Sermeq Kujalleq
glacier that has retreated nearly seven miles since 1960 and has become
a symbol of fears that the planet is approaching a dangerous warming.
The report was issued
following a weeklong meeting of scientists that examined how the Arctic
environment and climate interact and how that system would respond as
global temperatures rise.
In the past, Arctic
climate has included glacial periods with ice sheets extending into
North America and Europe, and other times of relative warming.
After studying how
various parts of the climate system interact, the researchers said there
are two major feedback systems influencing the region ocean circulation
in the North Atlantic and the amount of precipitation and evaporation
that takes place.
Feedback can accelerate
changes in the system, they said. For example, the white sea ice reflects
solar radiation back into space, but as the ice melts the dark water
will absorb some of the light, warming and melting more ice.
The scientists said
they did not see any natural mechanism that could stop the loss of ice.
"I think probably
the biggest surprise of the meeting was that no one could envision any
interaction between the components that would act naturally to stop
the trajectory to the new system," Overpeck said.
In addition to sea
and land ice melting, Overpeck said that the frozen soil layer called
permafrost will melt and eventually disappear in some areas. That could
release additional greenhouse gases stored in the permafrost for thousands
of years, he said.
© 2005 Associated
Press