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Tip: Your message to SUST-MAR must be html-free. So, BEFORE you hit SEND, please go to your "Format" pull-down menu and select "Plain text." Thanks! ____________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ CLIMATE CHANGE IS HERE, NOW, SAY SCIENTISTS YELLOWKNIFE - The most comprehensive study of Arctic climate change ever made has some dramatic news for Canada's North. The report, which will be released next week, says that the most rapid climate change on earth is happening in the Arctic. And it's happening faster than many scientists previously believed. The Big Melt Begins The ACIA report says the Arctic icecap has shrunk by 15-20 per cent in the past 30 years and the contraction is likely to accelerate. The Arctic Ocean could be almost ice-free in summer by the end of the century. Inuit hunters are falling through ice, permafrost is thawing and destabilizing foundations of buildings and vital winter roads, while the habitat of creatures from polar bears to seals is literally melting away. The report projects that temperatures in the Arctic will rise by four to seven degrees in the next 100 years. If temperatures then stayed stable, the Greenland icecap would melt altogether in 1,000 years and raise global sea levels by about seven metres. The report says that the thaw will have some positive side-effects. Oil and gas deposits will be easier to reach, more farming may be possible and short-cut trans-Arctic shipping lanes may open. The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) report says climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions will radically change the northern environment over the next generation. The statement comes with unprecedented scientific evidence, supported by the work of 250 scientists over the past four years. Washington-based Dr. Robert Corell, the lead scientist on the study, says the average winter temperature in the Western Arctic has warmed by an average three degrees in the past 60 years. "The Arctic climate is warming very dramatically now, we have documented it scientifically with the evidence," he says. "But what is fascinating for us is that it's doing so so much more rapidly than we had anticipated as recently as four years ago when we started. "It's just all about climate change is here and now, it's not something that we're anticipating in the years ahead, it's already here." Corell believes changes like that will have a dire effect on northern wildlife and the people who rely on them for sustenance. And he says the changes will also impact the rest of the world. LINK: Arctic Climate Impact Assessment Yellowknife environmentalist Bob Bromley hasn't seen the study but from what he's heard, he says it confirms his worst suspicions about the speed and intensity of climate change in the North. Bromley says he hopes this study will catch the attention of leaders who have real power to address the issue. "As far as this report goes, and it's effectiveness at moving things forward," he says. "Time will tell as to whether our leaders will hear what we are saying as Canadians and as residents of the circumpolar world, as canaries in the coal mine saying 'the world is really suffering here, we're responsible, we have the technology to do something about it, we need leadership now." The study will be presented at an international conference in Iceland next week.
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