For Immediate Release: September 15, 2011
Contact:
Erika Rosenthal, Earthjustice, (415)812-2055
Ellen Baum, Clean Air Task Force, (207) 666-5676
Rafe Pomerance, Clean Air-Cool Planet, (202) 423-6885
Second Highest Loss of Arctic Ice on Record
Human-Caused Climate Change Spurs
Massive Arctic Ice Cap Melt
Oakland, CA, - U.S. scientists confirmed today that the Arctic has lost
the second highest annual amount of ice since monitoring began. At a
press conference today, Dr. Walt Meier, research scientist at the
National Snow and Ice Data Center, at the University of Colorado in
Boulder confirmed that summer sea ice extent at the end of the
summer melt period has reached record low levels for the past five
years in a row, this year’s following close behind the low of 2007.
Meier called the ice melt “quite unprecedented and it is really
the continuing trend of a long term decline. The ice cover in the
summer is retreating over ten percent per decade and that has been
accelerating in recent years. We’ve also seen that the thickness of the
ice cover has been dramatically decreasing, losing approximately 40 to
50 percent of the thickness, which is more susceptible to melting.”
"This is not a random event," said James Overland, research
oceanographer with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration. "It's a long-term change in Arctic climate." Arctic sea
ice cools the planet, while providing refuge for much of the region’s
wildlife. “Walrus that usually spend all of their time drifting around on
ice flows, this year as in several previous years have had to haul out on
shore which brings a lot of extra stress on their population,” Overland
added.
“This news is another truly important sign of rapid warming at
the poles; even though melting of sea ice by itself doesn’t change sea
level, the warmer ocean waters that are associated with the loss of
sea ice can and do have an impact on melting of continental ice,” said
Dr. Robert Dunbar, professor of Earth Sciences, Stanford University’s
Center for Ocean Solutions. Continental ice covers land and adds to
the volume of sea water when melted. “It is the loss of continental ice
that is now causing sea level to rise worldwide at between 3 and 4
millimeters per year.”
“It used to be that Arctic ice melt was something that was in
the model prediction but now we see that the reality is upon us,” said
Rafe Pomerance, Senior Fellow at Clean Air- Cool Planet. “The loss of
ice is a urgent message and requires a comprehensive policy
response.”
Earthjustice attorney Erika Rosenthal says the rapid loss of
Arctic sea ice “is a powerful indicator of the rapid warming occurring
throughout the Arctic. This warming is causing the extraordinary
increase in the melting of glaciers and the Greenland Ice Sheet that led
scientists earlier this year to project a sea level rise of between 0.9 and
1.6 meters by the end of the century. For low-lying communities from
the Pacific Islands to Bangladesh to Florida this would be calamitous.”
Scientists say ice loss may be altering weather patterns.
Newly open waters, free of sea ice, capture more solar radiation
rather than reflecting it from the white ice. We’re actually increasing
the amount of heat coming into the planet,” Overland said. Overland
stated that more research is needed but there is data that suggests
that weather patterns could shift to bring more frequent and intense
droughts to the U.S., and that more open Arctic water and heat could
help supercharge those storms.
The lowest amounts of Arctic sea ice on record since satellite
monitoring began in 1979 have all been recorded during the last five
years. The remaining ice is less dense and thinner. The thinner the ice,
the easier it is to melt.
Recent scientific studies, including an assessment by the
United Nations Environment Program and the World Meteorological
Organization indicate that it’s possible to slow the pace of warming
and melting in the Arctic in the near term by reducing emissions of
two common air pollutants: soot and smog. These so-called “shortlived” climate warming pollutants, formally known as black carbon and
tropospheric ozone, remain in the atmosphere only days to a few
months, compared to 100 years or more for CO2. “That means that
reducing emissions of these climate pollutants would have fast climate
benefits, especially in the Arctic where black carbon pollution
accelerates the melting of ice and snow,” added Rosenthal who was
an author on the recent UNEP/WMO assessment of short-lived climate
forcers.
Less sea ice opens the Arctic to more shipping and oil
development. Ellen Baum, senior scientist with the Clean Air Task
Force, said that “the Arctic Council, the Convention on Long Range
Transboundary Air Pollution and the International Maritime
Organization, which regulates shipping, have looked at the role of
short-lived climate forcers in warming and melting and how and
where reductions from sources of these pollutants can reduce ice loss.
“
To listen to the entire teleconference online visit
www.earthjustice.org or www.catf.us.
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