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Arctic Sea Ice At Second Lowest Level On Record

Posted on: Wednesday, 27 August 2008, 11:55 CDT

Scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center say Arctic Ocean sea ice has melted to the second lowest level since satellite observations began.

On Monday, they recorded Sea ice melt that exceeded the low recorded in 2005, which had held second place.

Ice in summer 2008 has a chance to diminish below the record low set last year, according to scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Some environmentalists groups are calling the rapid melts another alarm bell warning of global warming.

"It's an unfortunate sign that climate change is coming rapidly to the Arctic and that we really need to address the issue of global warming on a national level," said Christopher Krenz, Arctic project manager for Oceana.

Deborah Williams, a former Interior Department special assistant for Alaska, said the current data is alarming. "This was a relatively cool summer, and to have ice decrease to the second lowest minimum on record demonstrates that global warmings ongoing impact is profound."

Scientists at the research center said the ice Monday melted below the 2005 minimum of 2.05 million square miles set on Sept . 21 that year. Exact figures will be released Wednesday.

They said through the beginning of the melt season in May until early August, daily ice extent for 2008 closely tracked the values for 2005.

The decline began to slow in early August 2005. In August 2008, however, the decline has remained steadily downward at a brisk pace.

According to the center the most recent ice retreat primarily reflects melt in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast and the East Siberian Seas off the coast of eastern Russia.

One of two populations of Alaskan polar bears makes their homes in the Chukchi Sea.

Nine polar bears were spotted by Federal observers swimming in open ocean in the Chukchi on Aug. 16. The bears were 15 to 65 miles off the Alaska shore. Some were swimming north, apparently trying to reach the polar ice edge, which on that day was 400 miles away.

Polar bears are powerful swimmers and have been recorded on swims of 100 miles but the ordeal can leave them exhausted and susceptible to drowning in high seas.

Polar bears depend on sea ice as their primary habitat to hunt their primary prey, ringed seals, which create lairs on ice for breeding.

Last year, summer sea ice shrunk to about 1.65 million square miles, nearly 40 percent less than the long-term average between 1979 and 2000. Most climate modelers predict a continued downward spiral, possibly with an Arctic Ocean that's ice free during summer months by 2030 or sooner.

“Last year's record low sea ice was not an anomaly,” Krenz said in a statement. He said as ice covers fewer square miles of ocean, warming will accelerate.

"It's going to accelerate climate change through changes in the reflectance of the Arctic," he said. "It's going from bright ice to a much darker ocean."

He said more square miles of dark ocean will absorb more heat. More warmth will accelerate melting of Arctic permafrost, allowing organic matter now frozen to melt and add to the greenhouse gas problem.

"That allows for the breakdown of that by bacteria and other organisms that release CO2 or methane, depending on how the breakdown occurs," he said.

Krenz warned that the effects faced by people in the Arctic eventually would reach the rest of the nation and the world.


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On The Net:

National Snow and Ice Data Center

Source: redOrbit staff

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