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Arctic
Ice in Death Spiral
The carbon dioxide emissions from
burning fossil fuels have melted the
Arctic sea ice to its lowest volume since before the rise of human
civilisation, dangerously upsetting the energy balance of the entire
planet, climate scientists are reporting.
"The Arctic sea ice has reached its four lowest summer extents (area
covered) in the last four years," said Mark Serreze, director of the
National Snow and Ice Data Center in the U.S. city of Boulder, Colorado.
The volume - extent and thickness - of ice left in the Arctic likely
reached the lowest ever level this month, Serreze told IPS.
"I stand by my previous statements that the Arctic summer sea ice
cover is in a death spiral. It's not going to recover," he said.
There can be no recovery because tremendous amounts of extra heat are
added every summer to the region as more than 2.5 million square
kilometres of the Arctic Ocean have been opened up to the heat of the
24-hour summer sun.
A warmer Arctic Ocean not only takes much longer to re-freeze, it
emits huge volumes of additional heat energy into the atmosphere,
disrupting the weather patterns of the northern hemisphere, scientists
have now confirmed.