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ExposesDr. Sommerkorn, in an interview with the German radio Deutschwelle told that thinning of the sea ice in Arctic exposes the darker surface of the sea which would absorb the sun’s heat and in turn heat up the Arctic sea instead of cooling down the heat brought there by currents form the lower latitudes. Thus the ‘radiator’ of the earth would malfunction, heating up the system. The IPCC’s Synthesis Report ‘Climate Change 2001’ noted that the North Atlantic branch of this circulation or the Great Ocean Conveyor Belt is particularly vulnerable to the changes in the rising temperature and would disrupt the current system which would have a strong impact on the regional as well as on the northern hemisphere. “Arctic ice is like a mirror, reflecting the sun’s heat back into space. As that ice goes, Arctic waters absorb more heat, adding to global warming,” Sommerkorn told the Deutschwelle. He warned that the process would also release the more greenhouse gases such as Methane (CH4) into the atmosphere which were trapped under the frozen sea. According to the IPCC synthesis report noted that trapped CH4 content under the ocean sediments would be 1,000 fold more than the current content in the atmosphere. The once permanently frozen Arctic sea now melts in every summer. “This is also the first year that the Northwest Passage over the top of North America, and the Northeast Passage over the top of Russia are both free of ice,” Sommerkorn told the WWF website. According to the Web site the summer ice coverage of the Arctic sea recorded its lowest of 1.59 million square miles, or 4.13 million square kilometers the level of the ice coverage of the current year. The area of ice that is at least five years old has decreased by 56 per cent between 1985 and 2007. The oldest ice types have essentially disappeared. “The Markham Ice Shelf was a big surprise because it suddenly disappeared. We went under cloud for a bit during our research and when the weather cleared up, all of a sudden there was no more ice shelf. It was a shocking event that underscores the rapidity of changes taking place in the Arctic,” this is account Derek Mueller, of Trent University in Ontario, Canada as reported by the CNN quoting the Associated Press. Undermined“We have undermined the rapidity of the global warming, thus the climate change,” was what Muller said. The Markham Ice Shelf was one of five major ice shelves in Canada, all located on the northern coast of Ellesmere Island, Nunavut. The ice shelf broke off from the coast in early August 2008, becoming adrift in the Arctic Ocean. At the time, the 4,500 year old ice shelf was 19 square miles (49 km2) in size, nearly the size of Manhattan, and approximately ten stories tall. Such as the elephants here struggling with the loss of habitat due to human settlements and farming the polar bears, seals and walrus experiencing negative effects as climate change erodes the ice platform on which they rely. According to Dr. Sommerkorn the Markham Ice Shelf had half the biomass for the entire Canadian Arctic Ice Shelf ecosystem as a habitat for cold, tolerant microbial life; algae that sit on top of the ice shelf and photosynthesis like plants would. “Now that it’s disappeared, we’re looking at ecosystems on the verge of extinction.” These changes are also affecting the peoples of the Arctic whose traditional livelihoods depend on healthy ecosystems. The indigenous hunting people in the Arctic regions and the fisher community in the Western parts of the Greenland are affected by the disappearance of ice in the region, reports stated. This is clearly and definitely a global problem, not only an Arctic problem which should be addressed by entire world. “The Arctic is a key factor in stabilising the global climate,” Dr. Sommerkorn told the Deutschwelle. |
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As the recent reports say that the polar bears swimming for their lives off Alaska, reports also point that thousands of walruses appeared in the Russian Arctic showing how vanishing ice in the Arctic due to the global warming is having a catastrophic effect on walruses.
Until recently scattered ice was usually present each summer in the Chukchi Sea, off the north-eastern extremity of Asia, and walruses were able to rest on the ice.
But now the ice has retreated to the deep water zone, leaving the sea completely free of ice in the summer.
The walruses cannot feed in such deep water, so they are forced on to crowded haul-outs (areas where walruses rest when they are out of the water) areas on beaches on the Chukotka coast, World Wildlife Found (WFF) said. These coastal haul-outs are extremely crowded, leading to animals being killed when they stampede over each other. The extreme concentration of walrus herds also leads to a shortage of food and provides ideal conditions for infections to spread.
Last year more than a thousand dead walruses were found on just 350 km of coastline.
The absence of ice in the vicinity means the seas are also rougher and as walruses swim further in these stormy seas to find food, some are dying from exhaustion.
According to WWF in the Chukotka Peninsula, Russia - Some 40,000 walruses have appeared on the Russian Arctic coast, the largest walrus haul-out ever to have been registered in the Russian Arctic.
These large gatherings are particularly to poaching and other threats and needed permanent measures such as nature reserves to protect them.
WWF reported that Walruses need thick sea ice to support their weight and shallow waters of the coastal zone to feed. Unlike seals, they cannot swim indefinitely and must pause after looking for food.
As the warming climate in the Arctic reduces the thickness and expanse of the ice, it also reduces the walrus’ habitat. Scientists are of the view that in the coming years new haul-outs would appear along the Chukotka Arctic coast and the creation of new nature reserves is a must to protect them.
Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said that there is a clear trend towards an overall warming in the Arctic.
As a result, the sea ice thickness has been reduced by 40 per cent in the past 30 years.
Some models suggest that by 2080, or possibly earlier, arctic sea ice will completely disappear during the summer months.
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Breaking
apart! 
What
if your air conditioner turned into a heater in the middle of a hot
August noon in the tropics? Sweating all over you might be thinking it
would be better to have been put in an oven. The air conditioner keeps
the room temperature in balance, but if turned into a heater rather than
being shut down, it would put everything upside down making the room
inhabitable. 
