Green Options » melting

North Pole Is an Island

Philip Proefrock — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 02:44:41 +0000

“Satellite images gathered by NASA show that the north-west passage opened last weekend and the final blockage on the east side of the ice cap, an area of sea ice stretching to Siberia, dissolved a few days later.”

Whether or not you subscribe to the concept of global climate change due to human factors, there is no dispute that, for the first time in recorded human history, the North Pole is an island, with unobstructed sea between the Pole and both Canada and Russia.

“Measurements on August 26 showed an ice cap of just over two million square miles, confirming the second biggest ice cap melt since records began.”

via: Telegraph.co.uk and Aftenposten.no

image via: Telegraph.co.uk

The Arctic Becomes an Island, Hurting Wildlife

Joshua S Hill — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 17:51:55 +0000

For the first time in recorded human history, the Arctic has become an island to itself, completely separate from the landmasses that the Arctic ice normally stretches out onto. This distressingly historic event has been captured by NASA satellites, depicting both the Northwest and Northeast passages as ice free.

For the past few years we have seen the Arctic ice sheet melt, dropping to lower and lower levels. And though we haven’t seen the 2008 melt season drop below 07’s record numbers, the ice has melted in such a way that now the Arctic has become an island.

Arctic Breakup Growing Each Week

Joshua S Hill — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 16:31:10 +0000

Fears about the Arctic melting away during northern summers are proving to be far from unfounded, with the latest reports rolling in from Alaska and Greenland showing disturbing trends. New shipping lanes are opening up through what were once icy seas near Alaska, and glaciers that have so far withstood much of what the environment has thrown at them in Greenland, are showing signs of breaking… literally.

Researchers who have been monitoring daily satellite images of Greenland’s glaciers from Ohio State University have discovered break-ups at two of the largest glaciers within the last month.

Polar Bears, Mountain Gorillas Under Continued and Increased Threat

Joshua S Hill — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 16:55:45 +0000

Native solely to the Arctic, and the land’s largest carnivore, the polar bear has long been a favorite of children and scientists alike. But, give it a hundred years, and we may very well be seeing the end of the polar bear for good, if something isn’t done soon.

According to a report conducted by the US Geological Survey, released this past Friday, two-thirds of the world’s population of polar bears could simply melt away like their native ice by mid-century.

"There is a definite link between changes in the sea ice and the welfare of polar bears," said Steve Amstrup, who led the research team.

Their fate could be even more uncertain than we currently know, given the unreliability of computer models to perfectly predict the quickly disappearing ice that used to cover the Arctic Ocean, and subsequently provided the bears with a habitat to which they evolved.

At the moment, polar bears number somewhere close to 16,000, and reside throughout the Arctic in Russia, Alaska, Canada and Greenland. Already, areas such as the Northwest Passage have almost totally disappeared, and experts are predicting anywhere between a 40% to total drop-off of summer ice by 2050.

The reports executive summary concluded that by the mid 21st century, a full two-thirds of the bears population could be gone, with remainders living in Canadian Arctic islands and the west coast of Greenland.

The polar bear has recently also been the subject of a potential addition to the Endangered Species Act list, thanks to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services. Unable to successfully hunt on land – being too acclimatized to hunting in the water and on ice – the polar bear would probably begin to suffer in its cub’s inability to survive past adolescence, and the females unable to successfully reproduce.

First making its way on to the ecological landscape some 40-50,000 years ago, the polar bear has adapted to the icy conditions of the northern icecaps. In that intervening period, earth has not suffered a warming to such an extent that its caps have depreciated as they are now. It is this unaccustomed warming that worries experts.

However, it is not just global warming that is threatening species of animals (though, one may claim that all problems find their basis with humans). The WWF (World Wildlife Fund) and other conservation organizations are refocusing their attention on Congo’s Virunga National Park.

Amidst fierce clashes between Congolese military and local rebels, conservation organizations are worried that the local mountain gorillas are at risk. The ICCN (the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature) have noted that recent heavy shelling has been drifting dangerously close to gorilla habitats.

With an estimated 700 mountain gorillas remaining in the wild worldwide, and half of that population in Virunga, conservationists have reason to be worried: "The UN announces a truce between warring factions one day and the next we hear it’s been broken," said WWF’s Marc Languy, who is working in the national park. "All we want is return of peace for the security of its people and wildlife."

So whether it is the polar bear, or the mountain gorilla, a common thread runs between the future of both: humans. We are the root cause of the problems; we thus have to be the solution. For more information, head along to WWF.