Green Options

The spotted seal, a sea ice-dependent Arctic species, has been denied Endangered Species Act protection by the Obama Administration.

Disappointment: The Center for Biological Diversity has announced that the Obama administration denied Endangered Species Act protection for the spotted seal, a species whose habitat is rapidly melting away due to global warming.

This week in the journal Nature scientists give the most comprehensive view of thinning ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica to date.

Scientists from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and the University of Bristol analyzed 50 million satellite measurements (from NASA) to show the massive ice loss on these polar giants.

The result are surprising, even to the scientists.

Finally, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is reviewing the status of the Pacific walrus to determine whether or not the marine mammal will receive Endangered Species Act protections.

The Center for Biological Diversity stated that the Pacific walrus (Odobenus rosmarus divergens) is facing a double threat to its ice habitat: Global warming and increased oil development.

A petition seeking protection for the Pacific walrus was submitted by the Center back in February 2008. After the USFWS failed to respond to the petition, the Center filed a lawsuit - prompting the USFWS to take action.

A new study by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), released today, says that the effects of warming in the Arctic are “dire… far worse than previous projections.” Dr Martin Sommerkorn, senior climate change advisor for WWF’s Arctic program (who works on this stuff everyday) says: “What they found was a truly sobering picture.”

As more shipping—ranging from container vessels to oil tankers to cruise ships—is using Arctic waters, the risk of major oil spillages increases but the actual incidence of minor spills resulting from trimming vessels or flushing tanks is growing and remains largely unreported by shipping lines.

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).