A lot has been written about the damage that could happen with the disappearance of ice from the top of the world.  Everything from the extinction of polar bears and the destruction of coastal cities has been forecast by politicians and environmentalists world wide.

According to the Environmental News Network (ENN), we are close to finding out just what disaster may await us.  The ENN is expecting the next set of Arctic measurements to show either the lowest overall coverage of ice in the region or the second lowest overall coverage.

When talking about ice coverage, more than simply area is involved.  Also included is the thickness of the ice and the age of the ice.  Already 56% of the area covered by ice that is five years old or older disappeared between 1995 and 2007.

Last years measurement of 1.59 million square miles, or 4.13 million square kilometers was a record low.  When ice thickness is factored in, this year looks as if it will be even lower.

[According to] Martin Sommerkorn, WWF International Arctic Programme’s Senior Climate Change Advisor. “This is also the first year that the Northwest Passage over the top of North America, and the Northeast Passage over the top of Russia are both free of ice.”

The thinning and loss of older ice shows a continuing trend of accelerated decline.  Since the Arctic plays a major roll in stabilizing the earth’s climate this has the makings of a worldwide crisis.  The ice reflects back solar heat.  With the loss of ice, the water in the Arctic is becoming warmer, which is melting more ice.  The melted ice is releasing green house gases that have been trapped for eons. 

This double whammy of warmer water and released gasses, is creating severe problems for the wildlife and natives that rely on this ecosystem for sustenance.  Soon wildlife will literally have to sink or swim to survive.

The doomsday scenarios that have been predicted will soon become reality if the nations of the world don’t do something to either reverse or stop the loss and thinning of Arctic ice. 

All of the technological gains that have been made over the past several years: turning waste into fuel, creating green buildings, developing newer more efficient solar, wind, and wave power need to be implemented now.

Have we reached the "tipping point" that Al Gore mentions in An Inconvenient Truth?  Can we reverse this trend or have we waited to long? 

This years numbers may answer these questions.

Photograph Courtesy of Joel Garlich-Miller, USFWS via NOAA arctic site

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Entry was posted on Monday, September 15th, 2008 at 3:55 pm under Green Technology.

Read more entries by Susan Wilson.
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