Arctic ice may vanish in 5-7 years
New models show the Arctic summer ice cap may nearly vanish in the summer much sooner that the year 2030, as earlier forecasted.
The report about the Arctic ice cap was presented at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen on Monday.
In September 2007, the Arctic ice cap dwindled to a record-low minimum extent of 4.3 million square kilometres. The melting in 2008 and 2009 was not as extensive, but still ranked as the second- and third-greatest decreases on record, says the report quoted by The New York Times.
Also on Monday, another report presented by Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and former US Vice President Al Gore focused on the melting of the cryosphere – that areas of the world covered by snow and ice, like Antarctica, Greenland and the world’s inland glaciers.
That report shows that snow and ice are melting at an alarming rate, and that the cryosphere is very vulnerable to climate change. The most important new findings relate to Antarctica. Mighty Antarctica, which previously seemed immune to the loss of ice that has occurred in other areas, shows signs of a net reduction of ice on a similar scale to that of inland Greenland.
One of the most alarming scenarios indicates that sea levels could rise between 0.5 and 1.5 metres by 2100, and in the worst case by 2.0 metres. This will affect many hundreds of millions of people living in coastal areas.
The entire report can be downloaded from the website of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
