The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal

From The Greenhouse Network, effects on the North polar ice cap caused by global warming, and what we can expect as a result:

Wed Aug 13,2003

OSLO (AFP) - The Arctic ice cap will melt completely within the next century if carbon dioxide emissions continue to heat the Earth's atmosphere at current rates, according to an international study.

"Since 1978, the ice cap has shrunk by nearly three or four percent per decade. At the turn of the century there will be no more ice at the North Pole in summer," one of the study's authors, Ola Johannessen, told AFP on Wednesday.

"If the CO2 emissions continue to accelerate, that may occur sooner, but if we cut them back the process will be slowed," said Johannessen, a professor at the Nansen research institute in Bergen, Norway.

Observations of the Arctic by satellite show that the polar ice cap has shrunk by one million square kilometers (386,000 square miles) over the last 20 years and is only six million square kilometers in the summer.

According to Johannessen, the total melting of the ice cap would set free a massive flow of cold water, which would strongly reduce warm surface ocean currents such as the Gulf Stream.

The Gulf Stream is the reason behind Europe's temperate climate and a reduction in its influence would have serious consequences for climate and the ecosystem in the continent.

But Johannessen also said that contrary to received wisdom a melting of the ice cap would not entail a rise in the level of ...(Read on in: Arctic ice cap will melt completely in 100 years)