Expert Studies Climate Change in Arctic
Posted on: Monday, 8 October 2007, 21:00 CDT
OTTAWA - Climate change may make Arctic energy resources easier to reach but it could also make them harder to exploit because of changes to sea ice, a U.S. scientist said ahead of an international oil and ice conference in Alaska.
Hajo Eicken, a University of Alaska scientist, is one of the presenters from at least five countries scheduled to speak about oil spills in ice-choked waters at a conference in Anchorage, Alaska, that starts Wednesday.
Eicken said Sunday that climate change is rewriting the rules for Arctic sea ice and becoming a crucial consideration in any offshore drilling. He says drillers will have to be aware that the old certainties of shore-bound ice - where much of the current exploration will take place - have changed.
"Conditions are more variable, less predictable. Even in winter, when normally you would expect to see the landfast ice to be stable and locked in place, we're starting to see ... larger tracts of landfast ice detach from shore and drift out to sea," Eicken said.
The conference is organized by Ottawa-based SL Ross Environmental Research Ltd.
Source: Associated Press/AP Online
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