World Political Blog » North Pole

Massive changes in the Artic weather and ice levels happening

Ashish — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 06:05:33 +0000

In the last few years, there have been a spate of reports on how global warming is continuing to march ahead, irrespective of the debate among countries and politicians about the steps needed to stop the emissions that contribute to global warming. Global warming is supposed to have a horrific impact on the ice levels of the polar regions and Greenland, with large scale reduction of the Artic and Antartic ice shelfs, along with melting of the huge amount of ice present in Greenland. This melting will release enough water to increase sea water levels, in turn devastating many low lying islands and low lying coastal regions. Scientists further fear that we are moving to an accelerated level of changes due to global warming, where global warming will become unsustainable (as an example, less ice covering the water means that the blue dark water will absorb more energy rather than the light reflected by white ice).
Global warming is already devastating the habitat of animals in the colder regions in the extreme North. The impact on polar bears is already pretty well known, but there are a whole range of animals that are affected (link to article):

The Arctic as we know it may soon be a thing of the past. That’s the message from Eric Post, lead scientist of a new report into the effects of climate change on life in the Arctic. “It seems no matter where you look — on the ground, in the air, or in the water — we’re seeing signs of rapid change,” said Post in a press statement.
With the decline in sea ice and snow, animals usually seen at lower latitudes are being found in more northerly regions, including red foxes that have been displacing native Arctic foxes. Migratory caribou in low Arctic Greenland and elsewhere are declining in number as they have not been able to keep their calving season in synch with changes in plant growth. With the decline in caribou comes a knock-on effect to native Inuit hunters, according to the report’s authors. Hotter summers could result in more insects and parasites that prey on the caribou, which could then also reduce the annual caribou harvest by local indigenous peoples.

This impact on animals and the native human populations is different from ‘Survival of the fittest’ since these are changes made by humans. Unfortunately, these are just an indicator of the impact of global warming, the changes are happening all around us.

The slow transition of Arctic to be an ice-free zone

Ashish — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 03:23:25 +0000

Inspite of the science of global warming now being a science that is validated by most scientists, and with dire warnings from an international council of scientists about the accelerated pace of global warming, the world leaders are caught up in a debate over who makes what change, over whether the economic impact is worth taking, and so on. There is also a tussle between the developed world and the developing world over who will take the required actions to reduce the growth in emissions, and in fact, reverse the increase in emissions. People now recognize that even if emissions are totally frozen, it will take time for a reduction in the trend of global warming.
The extent of re-freezing of Arctic ice is an indicator of conditions, and the indicator is not so good. The ice in the Arctic is now at the second lowest point ever, crossing the second lowest point set last in 2005. There is an increased amount of speculation that a few years in the future, we will see an ice-free Arctic. Typically, some melting of the ice happens in the summer months, and re-freezing happens in the winter months, but this year, the ice has started melting earlier than in previous years, so there is a strong possibility that the region with ice could be even smaller than last year, which was the record year:

Researchers say the Arctic is now at a climatic “tipping point”. “We could very well be in that quick slide downwards in terms of passing a tipping point,” said Mark Serreze, a senior scientist at the Colorado-based NSIDC. “It’s tipping now. We’re seeing it happen now,” he told the Associated Press news agency. Last September, the ice covered just 4.13 million sq km (1.59 million sq miles), the smallest extent seen since satellite imaging began 30 years ago. The 1980 figure was 7.8 million sq km (3 million sq miles).
Irrespective of whether the 2007 record falls in the next few weeks, the long-term trend is obvious, scientists said; the ice is declining more sharply than even a decade ago, and the Arctic region will progressively turn to open water in summers. Globally, the Arctic melt will reinforce warming because open water absorbs more of the Sun’s energy than ice does.

There are people who are looking to see this open ice-free region as a place of increased economic opportunity, with the potential to drill for oil and gas, as well as to have a better shipping zone. However, this greater ice-free region will be a disaster globally, with it serving to increase the overall warmth of the earth’s oceans; and if this impacts the Antarctic or Greenland ice shelfs, then we will start seeing the rise in the waters worldwide.
In addition, this is called a tipping point because in the current scenario, the ice reflects sun light; however, as the ice melts, the open sea is far darker, and the water absorbs much more of this sunlight, causing the water to warm up more. As this continues to happen, there is a point where the warming water causes more ice to melt, and reaches a runaway point where the ice melt starts to become much more rapid. In the meantime, the debate over who will do what, and what the targets should be for ensuring that emissions stabilize and then start reducing is an ongoing debate, mired in geo-politics.

Russia plants a flag to lay claim to the North Pole

Ashish — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 17:24:54 +0000

The North Pole has always been ice bound, but with global warming heating up the world, scientists are not sure how long that will continue. There is increasing speculation that the North Pole will become ice-free in the next few decades, offering an alternative sea path for transport. However, it will also lead to territorial issues. Typically, when the North Pole has been deeply ice-bound and mostly inaccessible in a normal way, there has not been much debate about who owns the North Pole.
All that is set to change, with nations such as Russia, Canada and Denmark (via Greenland) claiming the North Pole. The concept is to secure rights to the Artic Ocean and the supposed mineral rights underneath.

Russia has laid claim to the seafloor at the North Pole, planting its national flag underwater in the hopes of securing the Arctic’s potential motherlode of natural resources. In an unprecedented dive beneath the ice, two three-person submersibles descended 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) to the bottom, where one symbolically dropped a titanium capsule containing a Russian flag.
The Russian claim to the region, made Thursday, is based on international law that sets a 200-mile (322-kilometer) territorial limit stretching from the coast into open waters. This limit can be expanded if a country’s continental shelf extends further out to sea. Since 2001 Russian officials have been arguing that an undersea formation called the Lomonosov Ridge is part of Siberia’s shelf, and that the country is therefore entitled to sole rights to the ridge and the nearby seabed.

This is a symbolic step, because it has no legal meaning. Neither Canada nor Denmark will easily give in, and the US might also step in to dispute any ownership of the Artic circle due to its potential as a trade route. Of course, if we do manage to control global warming, then none of this should be a problem.