Green Options

The Northwest Passage is opening up. As Arctic ice melts, the shipping season will grow, and with it, the pressures on the fragile Arctic ecosystem.

Editor’s Note: This article was written by Agnieszka Fryckowska, Meteorologist and Halley Winter Base Commander at Halley Station in Antarctica. This is the first of an ongoing series of posts written by the Halley Station team, which will give readers a window into life in Antarctica.

Introducing Halley Station (75°34’S 26°34’W), located on the 150m thick, continually moving, Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica.  Named after the Astronomer Edmond Halley, the current station (Halley V) is the fifth to be built.  It is the British Antarctic Survey’s most remote research station and has been operational since 1956 (established by the Royal Society for the International Geophysical Year, 1957-58).   Halley Station (also known as Base Z) has presented itself in many forms since those first buildings in 1956.

The extreme environment challenges even the most thought out buildings.  Blizzards and snow drifts eventually bury any structures left on the ground and the constant movement of the ice shelf compresses any structures under the surface, making these buildings eventually unsuitable for use.

Neglecting its responsibility to protect & preserve the fragile Arctic ecosystem, Russia is planning to use floating nuclear reactors to power its oil drilling efforts in the region.

This month, as the results of data analyses come in, climate scientists are getting a more detailed, far clearer picture of the ‘State of the Poles’ and the effects of warming and climate change in these most extreme regions of our planet. Although this project is actually the culmination of two years work (encompassing 160 separate studies and costing 1.2 billion dollars) it has been officially deemed the ‘International Polar Year’ (IPY).

One of the most important findings of this project is a confirmation of what many climate scientists have suspected for a couple of years now–that the impact of climate change on our environment is happening at a much faster rate than previous computer models predicted. This is true even for the four major reports released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (the last of which was released in 2007).

Russia’s Security Council has authorized the creation of an Arctic special forces military to be deployed by the year 2020 to protect their interests in the Far North as new sources of natural resources become more available due to the decrease in ice cover.

A recent study shows that Alaska’s coast is melting faster than ever, and that along with the melting ice, more and more of the land is eroding into the ocean as well. The causes of the erosion also seem to be changing — in the past it was largely due to storms but that is no longer the case.

From 2002 to 2007, Alaska’s coast eroded at a rate that was more than twice that of the years 1955-1979. It is not just land that the sea is taking in these days either. It has swallowed a historic ghost town (Esook) and a historic whaling boat as well as an oil well (and probably more soon).

A team of international researchers has released the results of an extensive survey of the Antarctic and Arctic oceans.

The census showed 7,500 species in the Antarctic and 5,500 in the Arctic. The total number includes several hundred thought to be newly discovered species. In addition it was discovered, astonishingly, that 200 or more of species are common to both oceans - though they live 11,000 kilometers from one another.

Friday the 13th just got a little scarier. Here are 13 facts about the realities of global warming.

The numbers speak for themselves — we must make 2009 the showdown year for global warming action. There is no time to lose.

35%

Increase in the global carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels since the Kyoto Protocol was signed in 1992.

388.57 ppm

Average concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in May 2008, a record high.

541 – 970 ppm

The projected concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by 2100 under a business as usual scenario where we don’t dramatically reduce global warming emissions.

260 – 280 ppm

Average concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere before industrial emissions.

President Bush has urged Senators to initiate legal procedures to stakes claim to the natural resources of the Arctic region.

Score one for the environment - at least temporarily. Shell Oil announced that it will not be drilling off the Alaskan coast in the Beaufort Sea in 2009 as planned. This decision comes after a November court ruling which determined that Shell had erroneously been given permission to drill without properly assessing the environmental impact drilling would have on the fragile region.

The Arctic, already vulnerable and suffering from the effects of Global Warming, has been spared this blow by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals following a formal objection by Pacific Environment. The organization, along with a coalition of conservation groups, formally challenged the granting of Shell’s permit with an aim towards blocking the oil giant from drilling in this fragile ecosystem.

Study finds melting ice in the Arctic and longer droughts in the Southwest indicate earlier projections have underestimated the climatic shifts that will take place by the end of the century.