Arctic ice is melting faster than expected, report says

Sea levels could rise up to 5 feet in this century

May 04, 2011|By Karl Ritter, Associated Press

The international study says that Arctic temperatures in the past six years… (John McConnico/File/Associated…)

STOCKHOLM — Arctic ice is melting faster than expected and could raise the average global sea level by as much as five feet this century, an authoritative new report suggests.

The study by the international Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program, or AMAP, is one of the most comprehensive updates on climate change in the Arctic, and builds on a similar assessment in 2005.

The full report will be delivered to foreign ministers of the eight Arctic nations next week, but an executive summary including the key findings was obtained by the Associated Press yesterday.

It says that Arctic temperatures in the past six years were the highest since measurements began in 1880, and that feedback mechanisms believed to accelerate warming in the climate system have now started kicking in.

One mechanism involves the ocean absorbing more heat when it’s not covered by ice, which reflects the sun’s energy. That effect has been anticipated by scientists “but clear evidence for it has only been observed in the Arctic in the past five years,’’ AMAP said.

The report also shatters some of the forecasts made in 2007 by the UN’s expert panel on climate change.

The cover of sea ice on the Arctic Ocean, for example, is shrinking faster than projected by the UN panel. The level of summer ice coverage has been at or near record lows every year since 2001, AMAP said, predicting that the Arctic Ocean will be nearly ice free in summer within 30 to 40 years.

Its assessment also said the UN panel was too conservative in estimating how much sea levels will rise — one of the most closely watched aspects of global warming because of the potentially catastrophic impact on coastal cities and island nations.

The melting of Arctic glaciers and ice caps, including Greenland’s massive ice sheet, are projected to help raise global sea levels by 35 to 63 inches by 2100, AMAP said, though it noted that the estimate was highly uncertain.

That’s up from a 2007 projection of 7 to 23 inches by the UN panel, which didn’t consider the dynamics of ice caps in the Arctic and Antarctica.

“The observed changes in sea ice on the Arctic Ocean, in the mass of the Greenland ice sheet and Arctic ice caps and glaciers over the past 10 years are dramatic and represent an obvious departure from the long-term patterns,’’ AMAP said in the executive summary.

The organization’s main function is to advise the nations surrounding the Arctic — the United States , Canada, Russia, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, and Finland — on threats to the Arctic environment.

The findings of its report will be discussed by some of the scientists who helped compile it at a conference starting today in the Danish capital, Copenhagen.

In the past few years, scientists have steadily improved ways of measuring the loss of ice into the oceans.

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