Warming causes record Arctic ice melt: U.S. report

By Timothy Gardner

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Arctic ice shelf has melted for
the fourth straight year to its smallest area in a century,
driven by rising temperatures that appear linked to a buildup
of greenhouse gases, U.S. scientists said on Wednesday.

Scientists at NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data
Center, which have monitored the ice via satellites since 1978,
say the total Arctic ice in 2005 will cover the smallest area
since they started measuring.

It is the least amount of Arctic ice in at least a century,
according to both the satellite data and shipping data going
back many more years, according to a report from the groups.

As of September 21, the Arctic sea ice area had dropped to
2.05 million square miles, the report said.

From 1978 to 2000, the sea ice area averaged 2.70 million
square miles, the report said. It noted the melting trend had
shrunk Inuit hunting grounds and endangered polar bears, seals
and other wildlife.

The report warns that if melting rates continue, the
summertime Arctic may be completely ice-free before the end of
the century, echoing last year’s findings from the Arctic
Council, an eight-nation report by 250 experts.

The melting trend increasingly appeared to be caused by a
buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the scientists
said.

“It’s increasingly difficult to argue against the notion
that at least part of what we are seeing in the Arctic, in
terms of sea ice, in terms of warming temperatures … is due
to the greenhouse effect,” Mark Serreze, a research scientist
at NSIDC, said in an interview.

“We’ve put a hit on the system and we are in the midst of a
grand global experiment,” Serreze said about the impact of
global warming and ice melting on humans and animals. “We will
have to live with the outcome.”

The NSIDC, part of the University of Colorado at Boulder,
helps NASA analyze satellite data.

Most scientists believe greenhouse gases, including carbon
dioxide that is released mainly from cars and utility
smokestacks, cause global warming by trapping solar heat in the
atmosphere. Many believe global warming can lead to
catastrophic consequences, including raising sea levels and
strengthening weather events such as hurricanes.

One Arctic variation, known as Arctic Oscillation, an
atmospheric circulation pattern that can push sea ice out of
the area, had become less of an influence in the region since
the mid-1990s, the report said.

Inuit hunters threatened by the melting of Arctic ice plan
to file a petition in December accusing the United States of
violating their human rights by fueling global warming. The
Bush administration has opted out of the Kyoto Treaty to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions.

The Inuit number about 155,000 people in Canada, Alaska,
Greenland and Russia.

Scientists say the Arctic is warming faster than the rest
of the globe because water or bare earth, once uncovered, soaks
up more heat than ice and snow. That process means melting can
spur even warmer temperatures and more melting.