lightblueline

The BBC (September 19) reports on the historic opening of the fabled Northwest Passage from Europe to Asia. Plain sailing on the Northwest Passage

Below are some excerpts:
"This week, Europe's space agency (Esa) reported that the shrinking of Arctic ice had opened the fabled Northwest Passage, clearing a long-sought, but until recently impassable, route between Europe and Asia.

The Arctic Sea ice

The floating sea ice of the Arctic covers an area equal to that of the United States. The permanent presence of sea ice, ice sheets, and continuous permafrost are unique features of the Polar Regions. Even though it is characterized by its harsh environment and vast landscapes the Arctic serves as the home of many forms of life, including organisms living in the ice, fish and marine mammals living in the sea, birds, land animals such as polar bears, and human societies. But much more than that, its white ice cover reflects huge amounts of sunlight and thereby helps the world stay cool.

Scientists at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union presented a new warning on global climate change. "Global warming could melt the Arctic's ice during the summer as early as 2040, raising serious environmental as well as commercial and strategic issues, experts said on Monday.
'The effects of greenhouse warming are starting to rear their ugly head,' said Mark Serreze, a scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

This month, NASA scientists reported sea ice continues to decline by a remarkable six percent a year. "This amount of Arctic sea ice reduction the past two consecutive winters has not taken place before during the 27 years satellite data has been available," said Joey Comiso, a research scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "In the past, sea ice reduction in winter was significantly lower per decade compared to summer sea ice retreat. What's remarkable is that we've witnessed sea ice reduction at six percent per year over just the last two winters, most likely a result of warming due to greenhouse gases."