Arctic Ice Cap Melting 30 Years Earlier Than Predicted

Posted by Michael Link on May 1, 2007 at 05:34 PM

This piece of news straight from Reuters:

The Arctic ice cap is melting much faster than expected and is now about 30 years ahead of predictions made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a U.S. ice expert said on Tuesday.

This means the ocean at the top of the world could be free or nearly free of summer ice by 2020, three decades sooner than the global panel's gloomiest forecast of 2050.

No ice on the Arctic Ocean during summer would be a major spur to global warming, said Ted Scambos, a glaciologist at the National Snow and Ice Center in Colorado.

"Right now ... the Arctic helps keep the Earth cool," Scambos said in a telephone interview. "Without that Arctic ice, or with much less of it, the Earth will warm much faster."

Read the entire article. Later in the piece, Scambos states, that he as "no doubt that this was caused in large part by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere."

The Democrats have taken action already, as this article in the Seattle Times points to a bill that recently passed the House. In addition, Speaker Pelosi has announced a 15-Member Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming to tackle this important issue.

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