TIPPING POINT COMING SOONER THAN EXPECTED?
North Pole Could Be Ice Free in 2008
By CATHERINE BRAHIC
April 27, 2008 —
You know when climate change is biting hard when instead of a vast expanse of snow the North Pole is a vast expanse of water. This year, for the first time, Arctic scientists are preparing for that possibility.
“The set-up for this summer is disturbing,” says Mark Serreze, of the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). A number of factors have this year led to most of the Arctic ice being thin and vulnerable as it enters its summer melting season.
Meanwhile, there is a new fishery of sorts opening in the Arctic, thanks to sea ice receding from the north coast of Alaska that is making way for new fish hangouts. Salmon, among other fish, are beginning to show up north of the Bering Strait as they migrate in search of cooler waters that are disappearing in the more southern parts of the ocean. The catch: commercial fishing boats will follow, unless all fishing north of the Bering Strait is banned as proposed by scientists, environmentalists and even the fishing industry itself.
“We don’t know the full scope and effect as sea ice recedes and climate changes,” says David Benton, executive director of the Marine Conservation Alliance, a Juneau, Alaska–based industry group. “We need to close the Arctic until we understand what the effects are going to be in the environment.”
