Warning as Arctic heats up
Source: Agencies |
May 4, 2011, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
QUICKENING climate change in the Arctic, including a thaw of Greenland's ice, could raise world sea levels by up to 1.6 meters by 2100, an international report showed yesterday.
Such a rise - above most past scientific estimates - would add to threats to coasts from Bangladesh to Florida, low-lying Pacific islands and cities from Shanghai to London. It would also, for instance, raise the cost of building tsunami barriers in Japan.
"The past six years (until 2010) have been the warmest period ever recorded in the Arctic," according to the Oslo-based Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, which is backed by the eight-nation Arctic Council.
"In the future, the global sea level is projected to rise by 0.9 meters to 1.6 meters by 2100 and the loss of ice from Arctic glaciers, ice caps and the Greenland ice sheet will make a substantial contribution," it said. The rises were projected from 1990 levels.
"Arctic glaciers, ice caps and the Greenland ice sheet contributed over 40 percent of the global sea level rise of around 3 millimeters per year observed between 2003 and 2008," it said.
Warming in the Arctic is happening at about twice the world average, according to the report.
The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in its last major report in 2007 that world sea levels were likely to rise by between 18 and 59 centimeters by 2100. Those numbers did not include a possible acceleration of a thaw in polar regions.
The latest report, drawing on work by hundreds of experts, said there were signs that warming was accelerating. It said the Arctic Ocean could be nearly ice free in summer within 30 to 40 years, earlier than projected by the UN panel.
Such a rise - above most past scientific estimates - would add to threats to coasts from Bangladesh to Florida, low-lying Pacific islands and cities from Shanghai to London. It would also, for instance, raise the cost of building tsunami barriers in Japan.
"The past six years (until 2010) have been the warmest period ever recorded in the Arctic," according to the Oslo-based Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, which is backed by the eight-nation Arctic Council.
"In the future, the global sea level is projected to rise by 0.9 meters to 1.6 meters by 2100 and the loss of ice from Arctic glaciers, ice caps and the Greenland ice sheet will make a substantial contribution," it said. The rises were projected from 1990 levels.
"Arctic glaciers, ice caps and the Greenland ice sheet contributed over 40 percent of the global sea level rise of around 3 millimeters per year observed between 2003 and 2008," it said.
Warming in the Arctic is happening at about twice the world average, according to the report.
The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in its last major report in 2007 that world sea levels were likely to rise by between 18 and 59 centimeters by 2100. Those numbers did not include a possible acceleration of a thaw in polar regions.
The latest report, drawing on work by hundreds of experts, said there were signs that warming was accelerating. It said the Arctic Ocean could be nearly ice free in summer within 30 to 40 years, earlier than projected by the UN panel.
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