A scientist on board the Amundsen research icebreaker near the Beaufort Sea says the ice shelf that broke apart last week is another sign that the Arctic has reached a tipping point in climate change.
Two blocks that broke away from the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf near the northern coast of Ellesmere Island are simply the latest loss in the Arctic’s rapidly disappearing mass of thick, ancient ice, said Gary Stern, chief scientist on board the Amundsen Coast Guard vessel.
“When I hear what happened, I am not surprised,” Stern said by satellite telephone.
“The rate we are losing ice is phenomenal. This (climate change) is real,” he said. “I think a lot of people don’t understand how fast things are changing up here.”
Stern, a University of Manitoba professor, is leading a major research project – part of the International Polar Year – examining climate change and the loss of sea ice in the Arctic.
After spending winter months navigating freely through Arctic waters that were once impassable, he pointed to the lack of new ice freezing as another indication that warming is well underway.
— full article at thestar.com
Tags: ancient ice, ice breaks, ice shelf, northern canada, ward hunt ice
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August 4th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Wow!! Thanks for the information. am glad I opend your site. I able to know the happinings around.
August 4th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Thanks for the post.
August 4th, 2008 at 11:46 pm
It’s no less scary being that much closer to the floods likely to destroy our planet.
T
August 5th, 2008 at 9:41 am
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August 5th, 2008 at 9:48 am
It’s slowly getting ridiculous - all this panicking about climate warming. These changes have existed during the whole cycle of our earth. Thousands of years ago there have been dramatic warming periods as known from the ice probes from arctic and antartic ice - did the human have any influence in that? surely not. It is all a natural change to keep our planet going. Our planet is not a static thing - there is dynamic around that is absolutely necessary for renewal. Scientists are all the same as the media - seeking for sensations to get the research money. Why don’t people use their common sense to realize this? Of course we have to care for our planet and get rid of all the pollution and human made poisoning - but there is NOTHING we can do about climate change. Whoever thinks there is something to do is an idiot. One - I say - one huge volcano eruption is enough to change everything on our planet including temperature changes. Why do people always only see one tiny part of the whole? I am really fed up with all this.
August 5th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
I don’t know about over there in the arctic but i know it is getting hotter here in Arizona every year.
August 6th, 2008 at 3:22 am
Same as Petra, why do we think we did it? Or are doing it? I don’t insist we haven’t influenced climate at all but it does seem a bit overboard to think so. From my vague memories of school, these dramatic climate changes are part and parcel of life on earth! I also remember reading that one major volcanic eruption has more effect than we’ve had since we’ve been here. Too much science research is funded by companies with an agenda, something to prove, something to sell and profit from. Every result is touted as truth even though they contradict each other; how do we know what to believe?
August 7th, 2008 at 10:18 am
That is alarming… what will happen in about 5-10 years? I don’t want to think of the possible outcome… kinda horrifies me…