Julienne Stroeve @ NSIDC - Arctic Pack May Be At Threshold Beyond Which Recovery Is Impossible - FT

[hatrack]

EDIT

WWF said it believed that the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea – the main source of international marine territorial law – was inadequate for ensuring orderly management of the Arctic. “We urgently need sound international co-operation between Arctic nations to guarantee that the region’s development is sustainable,” said Neil Hamilton, WWF Arctic programme director.

The group wants a multilateral deal such as a regional treaty, echoing the decades-old Antarctic Treaty System aimed at demilitarisation, quelling territorial disputes and promoting international scientific co-operation. It claims the race to exploit the Arctic’s estimated hundreds of billions of barrels of oil equivalent – a measure that includes both oil and gas – will dramatically increase global warming in a region already suffering badly from it.

Arctic sea ice shrank last week to the lowest extent ever recorded by satellite, according to scientists at the US National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado.

Julienne Stroeve, an NSIDC scientist, said she believed the sea ice was reaching a “critical threshold” of thickness beyond which it could no longer survive the summer melt season. This meant the region could be ice-free in summer in the next 10 to 20 years.

EDIT

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4b6e821e-4e74-11dc-85e7-0000779fd2ac.html

[phantom power]

1. Just looking at your weekly ice maps, 10 years seems conservative.

What we're seeing looks like a phase change to me. Then again, I thought that about the hurricane season of 2005, and things haven't been as clear cut as all that.

I don't know. The positive feedbacks are so strong at the pole.

[aquart]

2. Even if it's not, we'll never change in time.

[NNadir]

3. It's so sick that they're fighting over who can get more oil when the ocean has melted.

What the hell is wrong with these people?

[phantom power]

4. A psychologist would recognize it as typical addict behavior.

Nothing matters but the juice, man.

[kestrel91316]

5. Oh, the Arctic ice pack WILL come back.........

AFTER we are all dead and gone.

[XemaSab]

6. If there is less ice

won't there be LESS opportunity for development, and not more? :shrug: