GLOBAL MELTING

The canary in the coalmine has come and gone. If you need proof of global warming, look north. Things are BAD up there. A global thaw spells big trouble on many different levels.

The northern hemisphere is warming up faster than the southern hemisphere, directly affecting the polar ice cap, which covers the Arctic Ocean and extends into Greenland, Siberia, Canada and Alaska. It’s receding at an incredible rate: twice as fast as anywhere else in the world, and an area larger than Wales melts each year.

The floating ice in the Arctic is relatively thin (less than 10 feet thick) which makes it especially susceptible to warming. As more ice disappears, seawater that was once covered absorbs more of the sun’s heat. This only exacerbates the melting effect. It’s a nasty little cycle that accelerates the effects of global warming throughout the rest of the planet. Another problem? The Arctic is surrounded by permafrost. Permafrost is land that remains permanently frozen, with only the top few inches melting during the summer months. Permafrost throws another wrench into the global ‘cause and effect’ chain. Parts of Siberia, for example, have been frozen since the last ice age, some 10,000 years ago, and contain 70 billion tonnes of stored methane. Methane is a greenhouse gas twenty-one times more potent than carbon dioxide. As long as that permafrost remains frozen, no sweat. But when it thaws and the methane is released, we’re looking at 10 times the amount emitted annually from human activity escaping into our atmosphere. Many permafrost zones contain enough plant matter buried in their frozen interiors to generate methane for centuries to come.¹

^{Illustration: Jason Thompson}

Melting permafrost is also turning once-frozen land into mud and lakes, dramatically altering the landscape, and threatening habitats and communities. The world’s oil and gas companies have been established in the Arctic for decades. Pipelines, oilfields and mines that were built on frozen land now face serious instability as this land begins to thaw. Highways become muddy impassable roads, and transporting these materials becomes a dangerous issue. One of Russia’s major nuclear stations was built on the assumption that the frozen ground would never thaw. The environmental and health implications for humans and hundreds, if not thousands, of species are frightening. And why are we still drilling in pristine Arctic wildlife reserves if the infrastructure needed to do so is thawing right underfoot?! Isn't it ironic.

^{1 Source: http://www.davidsuzuki.org/Climate_Change/Impacts/GlobalMeltdown/Arctic.asp}