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SCIENTISTS SOUND ALARM ON ARCTIC ICE CAP
CBC News
July 29, 2005

http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2005/07/29/Arctic-ice050729.html

Satellite data for the month of June shows Arctic sea ice shrunk to a record
low for the month, raising concerns about climate change, coastal erosion,
and changes to wildlife patterns.

The National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo., uses remote sensing
imagery to survey ice cover at both poles.

The centre had said 2002 was a record low year for sea ice cover in the
Arctic, since satellite observations began in 1979. There's evidence that
may have been the lowest annual coverage in a century.

"It actually melted back farther than normal pretty much everywhere around
the Arctic," said Walt Meier of the centre. "Where it's been retreating the
most has been north of Alaska and north of eastern Siberia."

The amount of ice that covered the Arctic Ocean in the month of June this
year shrunk by a record six per cent below the average rate for the month,
Meier said.

"June is really the first big [month] of melt in the central Arctic Ocean
and so it's an indication that the melt is progressing faster than normal,"
he said. "When you start melting the ice, you're leaving the open ocean
there, which absorbs much more solar energy and so it tends to heat up even
more."

Less sea ice means more moisture in the air and more rain. It also leads to
an increase in coastal erosion since the ice isn't there to buffer the
shoreline from waves.

Meier said the ice has retreated almost everywhere in the Arctic except for
a small area in the East Greenland Sea.

Prof. Andrew Derocher, a polar bear biologist at the University of Alberta
in Edmonton, said less sea ice could also shorten the feeding time for polar
bears and bring more of them into northern communities.

"It may mean that they're going to have to be particularly careful and on
the lookout for more bears than they might normally find in some of the
areas where they're camping during the summer until the ice comes back,"
Derocher said.

The National Snow and Ice Data Center said Arctic sea ice usually recovers
in the winter time, but researchers have noticed ice has begun to decline in
that season as well.

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Published by David Sunfellow
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