Fractured: The Ward Hunt Ice Shelf along the coast of Ellesmere Island in northern Canada is rapidly disintegrating, endangering unique microbial ecosystems. (Denis Sarrazin/Center for Northern Studies/Reuters)
Shrinking Arctic Ocean sea ice signals climate change
Global warming may have accelerated the irreversible loss of ice shelves that are thousands of years old, say scientists.
By Peter N. Spotts | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor/ September 4, 2008 edition
Reporter Peter N. Spotts discusses microbes that are being lost to climate change.
Reporter Peter N. Spotts
Key portions of Earth’s cryosphere are in deep trouble. So far this summer, Arctic Ocean sea ice has shrunk to its second-lowest extent on record as ice shelves along Canada’s northernmost islands are disintegrating at a rapid pace. A new report from the United Nations Environment Program and the World Glacier Monitoring Service notes that the melt rate for glaciers the service uses as reference sites appears to have doubled since 2000. The resulting increase in open water is expected to have a wide-ranging impact on global warming.
“These are huge areas that are changing,” says Luke Copland, who heads the Laboratory for Cryospheric Research at the University of Ottawa, referring to the ice declines in the Arctic.
People can debate the causes behind what’s happening in the Arctic, he says, “but what we can’t debate is the fact that things are changing, and they’re changing really fast.” Moreover, the changes are irreversible under today’s climate regime, adds Derek Mueller, a polar scientist at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario.
On Tuesday, Dr. Mueller and his colleagues reported that in early August, the 19-square-mile Markham Ice Shelf broke free of its moorings on the northern coast of Ellesmere Island. It’s now an ice island nearly the size of Manhattan floating freely in the Arctic Ocean.
Another of Canada’s four remaining ice shelves has lost 60 percent of its extent, while a third shelf continues to disintegrate. The accumulated loss for the summer amounts to an area of ice more than three times the size of Manhattan, or some 23 percent of the area that existed heading into summer.
As of Aug. 26, the total seasonal loss of Arctic Ocean sea ice was slightly more than 2 million square miles. That’s 760,000 square miles below the 1979-2000 average, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo.
The loss of the shelves will snuff out unique microbial ecosystems that have helped biologists gauge the range of extreme environments in which life can take hold, the researchers say. In addition, as free-floating islands, the shelves endanger offshore oil and gas exploration efforts. Drilling platforms were never designed to endure the impact of a 130-foot-thick, city-sized patch of ice.
Researchers say global warming has directly contributed to the loss as air and ocean temperatures have warmed. Indirectly, climate change appears to influence a naturally varying climatic feature known as the Arctic Oscillation.
There is some evidence suggesting that global warming has pushed the Arctic Oscillation into its amped-up phase more frequently over the past 20 to 30 years, notes Ignatius Rigor, a specialist on Arctic climate and sea ice at the University of Washington’s Polar Science Center in Seattle. One effect of that phase is to generate winds that drive sea ice out of the Arctic Ocean and into the North Atlantic. Dr. Rigor notes that in the late 1980s and early ’90s, a shift in the Arctic Oscillation “flushed a lot of sea ice out,” setting summer sea ice on its long-term trajectory of decline.
That loss then feeds into the reduction of the ice shelves, Dr. Copland adds. The shelves – the oldest sea ice in the Arctic – developed over thousands of years as the deep cold of winter froze more water than the shelves lost during the summer. Snowfall also contributed to the thickness.
But average annual air temperatures around Ellesmere Island have warmed by about 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F) over the past 50 years. That average masks wintertime temperatures that have risen an estimated 5 degrees C, says Copland. The return of ice during winters has failed to compensate for the ice lost during warmer summers. As sea ice retreats, the shelves become vulnerable to rolling swells coming off open water. The shelves “just vibrate themselves to pieces,” he adds.
Until now, the loss of Arctic ice has had far less effect on large-scale ocean circulation patterns than researchers once expected, Rigor says. But increasing amounts of open water in the Arctic absorb heat, which forestalls the onset of the fall and winter freeze.
The influence of that warming could have geographically far-reaching effects. In June, scientists with the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., and the Snow and Ice Data Center calculated that during five- to 10-year periods of rapid sea-ice loss, autumn temperatures could rise by up to 9 degrees F along the coastlines that ring the Arctic Ocean. That warming would prolong the melt season for permafrost, increasing the rate at which it releases enormous amounts of stored carbon as greenhouse gases carbon dioxide or methane.
“We’ve had three or four record minimums in the last decade,” Rigor says of lost sea ice. The way things are going, “it will be tough for the summer sea ice to recover.”
[Editor’s note: The original version of this story incorrectly stated that summertime temperatures around Ellesmere Island had increased 5 degrees C.]
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Comments
3. Jim | 09.05.08
Man Made Global Warming has to be the biggest pile of BS that has ever been shoveled on the American public.
4. tony anglesey | 09.05.08
i’m not one of these sceptics that do not believe in gw, but i do not believe that this melting will have a great impact, as this has been going on for thousands of years. the culrpit for this is a very strong el nino southern oscillation effect this not being unusual.this was open in 1906 for amundsen, and open in the 1930,s. this melt according to scientists is a natual accurance. so begs the question, why do scientists say one thing and some another? no wonder people are not taking any notice of global warming!!
5. Scott | 09.05.08
It is insane that mankind can walk upon the earth and believe he leaves no footprint. To think manmade Global Warming is a load of BS is truly just silly. To put it into simple terms for our friend Jim, let me give you an example. Put 10 kids in a 75 degree kiddie pool. Watch the temperature of the water rise… tell me it wasn’t manmade. Can you wrap your limited mind around that one Jim?
7. jack | 09.05.08
Jim, you must be right. Global warming is a conspiracy by the media, universities, scientists, Al Gore and their sketchy organizations like the National Academy of Sciences, NASA, NOAA, EPA, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, InterAcademy Council, International Council of Academies of Engineering and Technological Sciences, European Academy of Sciences and Arts, Network of African Science Academies, National Research Council (US), European Science Foundation, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Federation of American Scientists, World Meteorological Organization, American Meteorological Society, Royal Meteorological Society (UK), Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society, Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society, Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences, International Union for Quaternary Research, American Quaternary Association, Stratigraphy Commission of the Geological Society of London, International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, International Union of Geological Sciences, European Geosciences Union, Canadian Federation of Earth Sciences, Geological Society of America, American Geophysical Union, American Astronomical Society, American Institute of Physics, American Physical Society, American Chemical Society, Engineers Australia (The Institution of Engineers Australia), Federal Climate Change Science Program (US), and the American Statistical Association.
Oh dear, and to think that such a politically varied group as Newt Gingrich, Pat Robertson, the Vatican, Bill Gates, William Buffet, Rudy Giuliani, and heavens! John McCain believe its real and serious. How could this be happening?? It must be the water..its a conspiracy!! Help me Mr. Wizard!!
8. Luise Perenne | 09.05.08
To Jim,
If there is no climate crisis(also called Global Warming), why are so many glaciers shrinking in the Arctic and Antarctic? Why is the sea ice getting thinner with every passing summer? Why are the world’s oceans growing warmer every year? Why is the Arctic permafrost turning to mud? And why are tropical species of fish, insects and diseases beginning to migrate to areas where previously freezing winters would prohibit their survival into Spring?
It’s a fact that smog has been affecting the world’s atmosphere. Smog IS undoubtedly manmade and has been increasingly mucking up the world’s weather for at least the past two decades. And such pollution will continue to increase until such time as we, the muck-upsters, do something to stop it.
10. Nina | 09.05.08
The quickest method to slow global warming would be
for people to “get along”, no heated arguments, no heated killings and wars,
no heated domestic bviolence, no heated hate towards political opposition, and maybe you could add your own thoughts about this.
Rodney King’s famous quote ” Why can’t we all just get along?
could also be addressed to how we treat animals.
Didn’t Ghandi say: we measure our humanity as to how we treat those most vulnerable? or is it…everyone out for themselves?
At election time, if heated mudslinging is abounding, so is global warming.
11. Ann-Drea | 09.05.08
Oh and to the first commentor: that’s why we call it climate change. The earth does change, but we are responsible (well the main reason) for changing it in the recent years.
12. Glenn | 09.05.08
The temperature does not remain constant, never has, never will. How odd that we don’t seem to get that simple concept.
13. GI Guy | 09.05.08
Is it shrinking or growing…scott. the pool warmed up from a natural cause… the kids didn’t make squat they did what comes naturally…breath and their bodies did the rest.
http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=332289
14. Jim | 09.05.08
I find it amazing the Monitor will not let me post, there is no cursing I have not singled out anyone there are no links just passing on what I have found and read on Global Warming on other sites. I guess opposing views are not accepted I have tried several times and my comments are not accepted I guess that is why I dropped my subscription to the monitor.
15. Kevin | 09.05.08
Drill Baby Drill! is their plan. Be sure to vote in November. Bush won Ohio by about 1 vote per precint.
16. DennyK | 09.05.08
Then how do you Einsteins explain this?
“Arctic Sees Massive Gain in Ice Coverage” - Sept. 3, 2008
http://www.dailytech.com/Article.aspx?newsid=12851&red=y#340331
17. Ed | 09.05.08
To say that anthropogenic climate change is false is a very ignorant and frankly dangerous perspective. All of us under the age of 60 will be dealing with this in the very near future, and some of the possibilities are quite frightening. If we tip climate regimes into what is essentially a runaway greenhouse, most of the worlds financial and economic powerhouses will be severely affected, and our ability to feed the world might collapse. Given that we are already on the edge of Malthusian sustainability, the possiblity of human extinction due to rapid climate change is not as remote as people would like to think.
18. Mike | 09.06.08
I am having trouble posting comments to this article. Have you set up a maximum message size?
19. Mike | 09.06.08
Eoin, I haven’t been able to post comments for the past 12 hours from two different computers at two different locations. What’s causing this?
20. JB | 09.06.08
Are the democrats that worried about the upcoming election that the bloggers find it necessary to post politically related remarks on EVERYTHING in the media??? Why not propose good economic policies instead of only attacking people or parties who present any view on any subject…. Then let the people decide…So far I have seen nothing from either party that makes me believe anything will change Thank You Jimmy Carter!!!!! He certainly changed policy during his presidency…..17% home mortgage rates for one.
21. Don | 09.06.08
Global warming predicts an increase in antarctics ice and, one would assume, arctic ice, as warmer temps cause evaporation and that water reaches colder poles and falls as snow.
22. David | 09.06.08
Global warming? How about Cosmic warming.
Our whole solar system is warming up, including the Earth. Climate changes are occurring on every planet:
Venus glows in the dark (as does Jupiter’s moon Io),
30% of Earths ice caps have melted,
100% of Mars’ icecaps have melted within one year causing the atmospheric density to rise by 200% (causing probe crashes because the air is too dense),
Uranus and Neptune have both undergone recent pole shifts, 60 degrees and 50 degrees respectively,
the Sun’s magnetic field has increased by 1000% since the in the last 30 years,
Pluto underwent a 300%+ increase in its atmospheric pressure in a 14 day period in September of 2002,
Neptune has become 40 percent brighter in infrared since 1996…
Our solar system is moving into a new Galactic space where there are much, much higher concentrations of matter and energy, including charged particles of hydrogen, helium and hydroxyl. We are moving into the very center of our Milky Way Galaxy… it is being proven as we speak.
There is a dimensional shift, I believe, taking place at this time; and it will be coming to a close at or around the year 2012… hmm maybe the Mayan’s knew something. o_O
Alas, these are not my own findings, thus I must give credit where it is due. NASA and (more prominently) the Russian space programs have compiled this list of changes occurring in our solar system. David Wilcock has a beautiful compilation of all of this information at his website http://www.divinecosmos.com.
We are approaching a new, unprecedented age in human history. Despite the more frequent natural (storms) and social (terrorism) disasters occurring at this time, they are needed. More and more people are awakening to effectiveness of forgiveness and unconditional love in these current times. And I hope to God that if you are reading this, soon you may as well.
I only took my time out to type all of this out here, because of the apparent confusion that the public has about what is really going on here. So I hope that at least one person walks away from this with some more clarity than before.
Anyone with more interest I suggest going to divinecosmos.com for more information.
Peace and love be with all of you.
-David
23. John Fernbach | 09.06.08
Nina’s comment about everybody learning to get along as the best way of curbing global warming sounds morally attractive, and she echoes what my girlfriend keeps telling me on this subject.
But there are two problems with universal peacefulness and amity as the cure for climate change, I think. First, when has the human species * ever * enjoyed universal peace and harmony over the course of the last 7,000 years? However desirable universal peace might be, we don’t have it now, and if we wait to achieve it before we tackle the issue of climate change, we’ll be waiting a very long time.
The second problem is that there’s clearly an intellectual and political battle raging over the reality or nonreality of climate change right now. If the scientists and environmental advocates and politicians who hold the mainstream view on climate change don’t win the political battle, nothing is going to happen to change human behaviors that the scientists believe are contributing to the problem. Of course, a kind of peace might be achieved if the mainstream climate scientists would just give in to the voices who keep insisting that climate change is a hoax and nothing should be done about it. Then we’d have a peaceful public arena on the question, but the climate change would continue.
24. TY Freberg | 09.06.08
Except, if ice caps appear to be less substantial at this time–less than
30 years ago–but not necessarily 50: it would mean GLOBAL COOLING (the endless summer) rather than global warming (or the dread of deep winter)
Da da!?
I wanted to comment on ‘Franki Micciche’ (Sept 04/08): young adults thinks it’s harder than ever before to “get by” or even get ahead now, when after all? ‘Grannie’ came to California on a covered wagon, with rattle snakes whipping at her ankles and mountain lions or bears pawing at the canvas
top over her head just to get at some jerky; chicken tamales were how
the Mexican women carried their meats, in order to hide the
smell from packs of attacking wild dogs and wolves…
Indian ‘pocohanas’ slathered their babies with skunk oil, then tied them to their ankles for the effort of hunting and foraging about a wilderness
where not only was there no Whole Foods, but no running water and just
a sip meant a dive or method of conniving from a river, lake or
stream…
This La Jolla neighborhood is seeing some tough times: high gas prices, high unemployment? Whatever: sidewalk biking muggers now abound, but I keep think at least it’s not lions, tigers and bears; even though I’m having to buy and carry gallons of distilled water every week to avoid the poison of “flouridation” or to escape the genocide efforts of the San
Diego Water District, I am still grateful about being able to
buy precious, clean water from an actual store (even a store
where clerks–WFs–wave and point cardboard cutters at
whomever might ask for dried beans, white potatoes…)
25. Jackaroo | 09.07.08
Global warming is more or less irrelevant. It is a distraction to create inaction. The actions we should take are all common sense–whether or not you believe in GW. It only makes sense to pollute less, to use less, to collect things that can be used again, to conserve what we have and pass it on in a somewhat useable condition to the next generation. Any person who claims intelligence should do these common sense things. And it might even affect global warming. But if you get trapped by the red herring and go chasing the GW proof, it will be too late.
26. Jatin | 09.07.08
Earth is not only the planet of human beings but also of those who need the humanity. The greed or the need of the human beings created what we know today as global warming. Let the G be for Girl not for Global warming. we should try to leave simple terminologies for the future.
27. Ann | 09.07.08
Hey GI guy,
Your link of an opinion post has no bearing on this. The ice melting in the northern ocean is far different than adding ice on land. When there is ice on the ocean the albedo is far different than the albedo of the ocean itself. Each year when the ice does not return as much, it decreases the albedo which increases temperature which then decreases albedo. This is called a positive feedback system. It also will increase water vapor as the temperature increases, another greenhouse gas. Then temperatures increase further due to more water vapor.
And David, your comment is laughable. The sun and our actions ON earth have far more impact than any “minor” change in cosmic temperature. Additioally, we CANT be “moving to the center” of the milky way because we are on the barbs. If you know anything about rotation and physics, you’ll understand why it would be impossible for us to “move to the center” unless our rotation some how got faster or we were being pushed by some force. We aren’t.
28. Dave | 09.07.08
The people who tell you that gw isn’t happening, will go away etc, are the same people who are controlling the HAARP installation that created the high pressure cells that steered Hurricane Ike from one end of Cuba to the other when it was scheduled to go offshore and straight for Miami.
29. Charlotte Fairchild | 09.08.08
One simple way the Earth is trying to heal itself is with stronger and faster growth of vines like kudzu and poison ivy. Kudzu food has 2 million sites and is edible but the US poisons it while people eat processed foods, and poison ivy recipes are only to heal the rash and maybe there are uses for poison ivy so that it is useful instead of poisoning the water table? Warfare uses, maybe.
If global warming doesn’t exist, then people are wasting their breath, but if like the Titanic, the boat is really sinking, the people in the life boats are choosing a better way to go.
I am at home without a gas guzzler, and I grow as many trees as my acre allows, and as much food that is organic as my acre allows. Not because I believe we are sinking like the Titanic, but because today, I am living my best.
30. mermaid | 09.08.08
If you know the dam is crumbling and soon the waters will be threatening your house, do you do nothing but argue about the cause?
Or do you plan ahead what you’ll do when the waters inevitably wash over the road into your town?
Who cares what causes climate change? Act of God, nature, or man, only human animals would argue about the causes instead of taking action to save themselves.
We big-brained mammals will not survive foreseeable disasters if we won’t act because we can’t agree on the cause.
31. Adysen Cohen | 09.09.08
i dont think this global warming is going to have a great impact on humans.
this is bad for the environment and to rare living things that just “happen” to be there. if sea levels rise we could see floding and a change in the weather. STOP GLOBAL WARMING!!
33. Gordon | 09.11.08
@16 DennyK,
No one needs to be a genius to explain it, but honesty does help. The two maps presented by your site were for different dates, earlier in August 2008 than for August 2007, and so were misleading. I recommend that people go directly to the NSIDC site for information rather than to sites that intentionally distort their findings. In fact, this link will take you right to their site, where you will find an accurate comparison of 2007, the worst year on record, and 2008, the second worst year on record, but not by very much. You will also find that the ice loss in August 2008 was the most lost in any August on record.
34. Mikko | 09.13.08
One thing I have never understood is that even if you choose not believe the facts presented about the climate change, why would you oppose to acting against it? Because at least I´ve always thought that anyone can appreciate cleaner air, less pollution, less dependency on foreign energy, etc.
35. Bob Webster | 09.23.08
This report is so full of opinion contrary to facts that it is hard to believe its author did more than a cursory review of the information provided to him. There is no certainty about today’s “climate regime” that will make recent decreased summer sea-ice extent “irreversible.” Earlier this year there were dire predictions that this summer would see Arctic sea ice melt entirely (”an ice-free Arctic”) or at least exceed the sea-ice retreat experienced during the summer of 2007. That hasn’t happened as minimum sea-ice extent remained about 10% greater in 2008 than in 2007 when the minimum was reached in mid-September (ice is now growing again as the Arctic Sea plunges into darkness). Most credible experts believe that a combination of atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns that change periodically were responsible for the decrease in Arctic sea ice during the early years of this decade. Those patterns changed somewhat over the past several years and, according to expert opinion, sea ice extent is likely to continue to grow in the Arctic over the next several decades. Warmer air temperatures are believed to be the result of warmer ocean currents driving warmer water into the Arctic Sea until the recent change to a colder circulatory regime. These currents suggest a prolonged period of colder winters in the Northern Hemisphere. As global average temperatures continue to plunge (they’ve dropped so much since 2006 that most of the net warming of the 20th Century has been lost) in the continuing downward trend (since 2002) of global average temperature in response to a host of natural climate change forces that have nothing whatsoever to do with human activity. Those who want to keep abreast of real science advances concerning climate change (unfettered by those who have an agenda to control carbon dioxide emissions that have never in Earth’s long history been a significant force for climate change) should check regularly at the following websites: ICECAP - at http://www.icecap.us, probably the best for daily information; Watt’s Up With That - Anthony Watts’ great site at http://wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com/ and Climate Audit - Steve McIntyre’s excellent site at http://www.climateaudit.org/ … also, read “The Deniers” by Lawrence Solomon; A Primer on CO2 and Climate by Dr. Howard Hayden; Climate Confusion, by Dr. Roy Spencer; and, Cool It by Dr. Bjorn Lomborg.
36. RodD | 09.28.08
The IPCC which is a political body bases its predictions only on self serving climate modeling. The track record on climate modeling has missed on just about all of it’s predictions so far. They are only as good as the one who programs the computer as our technology is far from being able to take into account all varables. In the meantime real science sees the sun as the major driver of climate and the suns activity has reduced it’s output to alarmingly low levels. Global cooling would hurt planet earth far more than any perceived global warming. Recently the Space and Science Research Center sent a letter to world leaders warning them of imminent dangerous long term cooling. See; http://www.spaceandscience.net/id.html
38. KT | 10.02.08
hi guys,
Just read this:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070228-mars-warming.html
http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=edae9952-3c3e-47ba-913f-7359a5c7f723&k=0
can we do anything about it? if gw is not man-made?
katya
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1. Chris | 09.04.08
Does this mean that the Earth will not remain the exact way it is today, forever? I, for one, am shocked. The government needs to do something about this.