Professional Documents
Culture Documents
News Programs Video Learning English Live Streams: Latest Newscast | Africa Live | Global Live
News | Environment
News Environment
USA
Arctic Ice Melting Faster Than Predicted Email This Article
Africa
May 04, 2011 Rosanne Skirble Print This Article
Americas
Comment on This Article
Asia
Europe
Middle East
Arts and
Entertainment
Economy
More Topics
Education
Environment Science World
Health From archaeology to
News Analysis zoology, from atoms to
Religion galaxies, Our World gives
a state-of-the-art mix of
Science and
news and features
Technology
Sports More »
"In my field, glaciology, six years ago we didn’t think that ice sheets
responded to climate change on a time scale any shorter than a few
thousand years, whereas now we are seeing the big ice sheets in
Greenland and west Antarctica respond in just a few months to triggers
that are coming from the climate systems," said Hamilton.
The extent and duration of snow cover have decreased throughout the
Arctic, falling by 18 percent since 1966. Other accelerated changes,
Hamilton says, include the rapid decline of sea ice.
"A few years ago the projection was that the Arctic Ocean would be ice-
free in the summers by the year 2080," he said. "Well, in the first few years
of this decade there were some extraordinarily fast declines in Arctic sea
ice."
The report finds that the Arctic Ocean could become nearly ice-free in the
summers within the next thirty to forty years. Hamilton says there is still
time to act to slow down these changes by drastically reducing climate-
changing carbon emissions, initiatives that he hopes the Arctic country
ministers adopt when they meet next week in Greenland.
Comments (0)
Submit
By using this form you agree to the following: All comments will be reviewed before
posting. Be aware - not all submissions will be posted. VOA has the right to use your
comments worldwide in any VOA produced media. Terms & Conditions