Arctic ice seen melting faster than anticipated

Laura MacInnis, Reuters 23 Apr 08;

GENEVA (Reuters) - Arctic ice may be melting faster than most climate change science has concluded, the conservation group WWF said in a report published on Thursday.

It found that ice in Greenland and across the Arctic region was retreating "at rates significantly faster than predicted in previous expert assessments".

The Greenland Ice Sheet -- with an ice volume of about 2.9 million cubic kilometers -- is shrinking at a fast pace and "could contribute much more than previously estimated to global sea-level rise during the 21st century," the WWF said.

It also said that Arctic warming has reduced both the area and thickness of the northern region's multi-year sea ice, making it more prone to summer thaw.

Many climate change scientists have inadequately considered the drivers of such trends, such as interactions between sea ice thickness and water temperature, according to WWF.

"The recent acceleration in sea-ice retreat is not captured by most models," it said in the study reviewing global warming research from 2005, including the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports issued last year.

"Our understanding of climate impacts lags behind the changes we are already seeing in the Arctic," said Martin Sommerkorn, a climate change adviser with WWF International's Arctic Program.

"This is extremely dangerous, as some of these Arctic changes have the potential to substantially warm the Earth beyond what models currently forecast," he said.

WWF, formerly called the World Wildlife Fund and now known by its initials, said that climate change has already affected all aspects of ecology in the Arctic, including the region's oceans, sea ice, ice sheets, snow and permafrost.

It called on Arctic nations -- including Canada, the United States, Russia, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark, through its Greenland territory -- to work together to help the region's communities adapt to the challenges ahead.

Fast-melting Arctic ice has the potential to cause coastal erosion, impact indigenous peoples' livelihoods, affect marine organisms, and make the region's mineral and other resources more accessible with new, formerly inaccessible marine routes.

It could also have global effects, particularly causing rising sea levels that could threaten coastal communities from Bangladesh to the Netherlands to parts of the United States.

"We need to reduce global emissions of greenhouse gases to levels that will avoid the continued warming of the Arctic and the anticipated resulting disruption of the global climate system," Sommerkorn said.

(Editing by Jonathan Lynn and Keith Weir)

WWF warns Arctic ice melting faster than predicted
Yahoo News 23 Apr 08;

Arctic sea ice is melting "significantly faster" than predicted and is approaching a point of no return, conservation group the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) warned in a new study released Wednesday.

The volumes of the Greenland Ice Sheet and ice in the Arctic Ocean were estimated at 2.9 million and 4.4 million cubic metres respectively in September 2007 -- the lowest ever levels recorded, the organization said.

The sea ice shrank to 39 percent below its 1979-2000 mean volume, it said.

"Recently observed changes are happening at rates significantly faster than predicted" by the 2005 Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) and last year's report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), WWF said.

The melting of arctic sea ice and the Greenland Ice Sheet was happening so fast that experts were now questioning whether the situation is close to "tipping point," where sudden and possibly irreversible change takes place.

"When you look in detail at the science behind the recent Arctic changes it becomes painfully clear how our understanding of climate impacts lags behind the changes that we are already seeing in the Arctic," said Martin Sommerkorn, one of the authors of the report.

The WWF will present its report, comprised of the latest research in the region, to the meeting Thursday of the Arctic Council, which groups Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States.

The conservation group's researchers also warned of the devastating effect the rapid melting of the arctic ice could have on polar bears in Canada, where two thirds of the world's population of the animals live.

"Previous models had predicted that melting sea ice would mean some polar bear populations could become extinct by 2050. The new evidence points to even earlier regional extinctions," said Peter Ewins, director of species conservation at WWF-Canada.

The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada will present the government with its estimates of the status of polar bears there on Friday.