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Arctic Ice 'Melting Fast,' May Reach All-Time Low, Russia Says
2010-07-20 12:06:08.655 GMT
By Maria Kolesnikova
July 20 (Bloomberg) -- Arctic sea ice is melting faster
than expected and this season's loss may match the record
reached three years ago, Russia's environmental agency said.
"Ice in the Arctic is melting very fast," Federal
Hydrometeorological and Environmental Monitoring Service chief
Alexander Frolov said today.
The latest figures show that Arctic Ocean ice covered about
10.8 million square kilometers in June, less than at the same
time in 2007, when the pack eventually shrank to an all-time
low, Frolov told reporters in Moscow. The record was reached
Sept. 16, 2007, when the so-called Arctic sea ice extent shrank
to 4.14 million square kilometers (1.63 million miles), according
to the National Snow and Data Center in the U.S.
Arctic ice coverage may fall as much as 30 percent below
the average from 1979-2000, according to Frolov. "This means
that many waterways will be ice-free," he said.
Scientists have highlighted declining Arctic sea ice as an
indicator of global warming. Recent "anomalies" suggest that
the North Pole may be ice-free during summer within a few
decades, rather than by 2080, which is the current prediction of
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Frolov said.
"The ice may melt fully in summer and freeze in winter,"
Frolov said. "This is one possible scenario."
--Editors: Brad Cook, Alex Nicholson.
For Related News and Information:
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To contact the reporters on this story:
Maria Kolesnikova in Moscow at +7-495-771-7707 or
mkolesnikova@bloomberg.net,
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Claudia Carpenter at +44-20-7330-7304 or
ccarpenter@bloomberg.net.
