Polar Update - disquieting events

Just throwing together a very quick update here because various disquieting events are currently happening at both Poles.

All bolding is mine.


ANTARCTIC

Perhaps most concerning is the news released on Sunday morning that the ice bridge holding the Wilkins Ice Shelf in place has broken. Here is the BBC report and one just released by the British Antarctic Survey. the BBC said

'An ice bridge linking a shelf of ice the size of Jamaica to two islands in Antarctica has snapped.

'Scientists say the collapse could mean the Wilkins Ice Shelf is on the brink of breaking away, and provides further evidence of rapid change in the region.'

The day before, a joint report of the US Geological Survey and the British Antarctic Survey was released stating that the Wordie Ice Shelf has completely 'disappeared' in the words of the Reuters headline. The news agency stated

'One Antarctic ice shelf has quickly vanished, another is disappearing and glaciers are melting faster than anyone thought due to climate change, U.S. and British government researchers reported on Friday.

'They said the Wordie Ice Shelf, which had been disintegrating since the 1960s, is gone and the northern part of the Larsen Ice Shelf no longer exists. More than 3,200 square miles (8,300 square km) have broken off from the Larsen shelf since 1986.

'Climate change is to blame, according to the report from the U.S. Geological Survey and the British Antarctic Survey, available at pubs.usgs.gov/imap/2600/B.'

Today, the Australian periodical The Age reports that

'UP TO one-third of all Antarctic sea ice is likely to melt by the end of the century, seriously contributing to dangerous sea level rises, updated scientific modelling on global warming shows.

'The evidence will be presented to an international meeting of Antarctic and Arctic scientists in the US tonight, at which US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will speak.

'The modelling is the first release of a landmark study being conducted by the global scientific body the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, made up of the peak scientific bodies from 23 countries including Australia.

'The report, Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment, is the result of research undertaken by all 23 nations, the first time such a study has been undertaken. The final report will be released in June.'

'The report shows that the Antarctic Peninsula alone has decreased by 27,000 square kilometres in the past 50 years.'

ARCTIC

The Arctic winter has come to an end and the melting season has commenced. Within the hour, the National Snow & Ice Data Center has just released its first full update since. A preliminary update (available in the archives at the same link) posted on 30 March stated:

'On February 28, Arctic sea ice reached its maximum extent for the year, at 15.14 million square kilometers (5.85 million square miles). The maximum extent was 720,000 square kilometers (278,000 square miles) below the 1979 to 2000 average of 15.86 million square kilometers (6.12 million square miles), making it the fifth-lowest maximum extent in the satellite record. The six lowest maximum extents since 1979 have all occurred in the last six years (2004 to 2009).'

The key issue is the age of the ice as this governs its thickness, and so how quickly it will melt away on warming. Here we have disquieting news from the latest release:

'As the melt season begins, the Arctic Ocean is covered mostly by first-year ice, which formed this winter, and second-year ice, which formed during the winter of 2007 to 2008. First-year ice in particular is thinner and more prone to melting away than thicker, older, multi-year ice. This year, ice older than two years accounted for less than 10% of the ice cover at the end of February. From 1981 through 2000, such older ice made up an average of 30% of the total sea ice cover at this time of the year.'

If it turns out to be a warm summer, we shall therefore see a very rapid retreat as a result.


Finally here is perhaps the most telling quote, from a story entitled Arctic meltdown is a threat to humanity from Global Research dated 31 March

'I AM shocked, truly shocked," says Katey Walter, an ecologist at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. "I was in Siberia a few weeks ago, and I am now just back in from the field in Alaska. The permafrost is melting fast all over the Arctic, lakes are forming everywhere and methane is bubbling up out of them."

'Back in 2006, in a paper in Nature, Walter warned that as the permafrost in Siberia melted, growing methane emissions could accelerate climate change. But even she was not expecting such a rapid change. "Lakes in Siberia are five times bigger than when I measured them in 2006. It's unprecedented. This is a global event now, and the inertia for more permafrost melt is increasing."'