News About Climate Change
Published on Friday, September 10, 2004
by the Inter
Press Service
| A
good page to bookmark! |
 |
SCIENCE:
Warming Trend Will Decimate Arctic Peoples, Report Warns
Stephen Leahy
BROOKLIN, Canada, Sep 9 (IPS) - Climate change will
soon make the Arctic regions of the world nearly unrecognisable,
dramatically disrupting traditional Inuit and other
northern native peoples' way of life, according to a
new report that has yet to be publicly released.
The dire predictions are just some of the findings by
the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA), an unprecedented
four-year scientific investigation into the current
and future impact of climate change in the region.
"This assessment projects the end of the Inuit as a
hunting culture," said Sheila Watt-Cloutier, chairwoman
of the group that represents about 155,000 Inuit in
the Arctic regions of Canada, Russia, Greenland, and
the United States.
The report predicts the depletion of summer sea ice,
which will push marine mammals like polar bears, walrus
and some seal species into extinction by the middle
of this century, Watt-Cloutier told IPS.
The assessment was commissioned by the Arctic Council,
an intergovernmental body involving the eight Arctic
nations -- Canada, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Iceland,
Norway, Russia, and the United States.
The Inuit and other Arctic peoples also participate
in the Council and contributed to the ACIA report, along
with over 600 hundred scientists from around the world.
Although complete, it will not be made public or presented
to governments until after the U.S. presidential elections
at a conference in Reykjavik, Iceland, Nov. 9-12.
The impacts of climate change are already widely felt
in the Arctic. Thawing permafrost -- the normally perpetually
frozen layer of earth -- has collapsed roads and buildings.
Unexpectedly thinner sea ice and small streams that
have become raging rivers has led to several drownings
in recent years, according to Watt-Cloutier.
"Our traditional wisdom on how to survive and thrive
on the land is becoming useless because everything is
changing and changing fast."
Alaska experienced its warmest and driest summer ever
this year, Patricia Anderson of the ACIA Secretariat
University of Alaska said in an interview. Temperatures
soared 10 degrees C. above normal and millions of hectares
of forest burned in the worst wildfires ever recorded,
following several recent years with major fires.
And now the state is facing infestations from the spruce
budworm, a tree-eating insect that had only plagued
southern forests previously.
"It used to be too cold for it up here," Anderson noted.
Unable to provide details on the report itself, Anderson
confirmed that the report documents that these are not
just unusual events but are in fact trends.
"Sea ice will continue to get thinner, there will be
much more melting of permafrost and more coastal erosion
due to stronger storm surges."
Inuit people will be unable to continue living off the
land in the future and the changes are coming so fast
they won't be able to adapt, she said. "These are the
results of climate change."
The Arctic is warming twice as fast as anywhere else
because of global air circulation patterns and natural
feedback loops such as less ice reflecting sunlight,
leading to increased warming at ground level and more
ice melt.
Computer projections by the ACIA show that trend will
continue with the Arctic warming by an average of 6
degrees C by the end of the century -- even if the Kyoto
Protocol commitments to reducing greenhouse gases like
carbon dioxide go into effect on a global scale.
And yet things could be even worse. Scientists deliberately
selected moderate projections to avoid controversy,
Anderson said.
"The rest of the world needs to pay attention to what's
happening in the Arctic because it's acting as an early
warning barometer for what will happen in the rest of
the world," said Watt-Cloutier.
If that's not reason enough, another key finding in
the ACIA report, Anderson said, is the concern that
the melting of Arctic ice and snow will dump enough
fresh water into the Arctic ocean to slow or shut down
the vital North Atlantic Ocean conveyor current.
This conveyor current brings warm tropical waters north
and moderates temperatures in eastern North America
and Europe. Large volumes of fresh water spilling out
of the Arctic ocean could slow its northward movement,
leading to an abrupt climate shift where the region
would experience much cooler temperatures in just a
few years time.
Some scientists have detected signs that this may be
already starting to happen.
Despite the alarming evidence, there is little good
news when it comes to taking action on climate change.
Carbon dioxide emissions are climbing globally, including
by the biggest contributor, the United States.
"The Bush administration doesn't believe there's a problem
and are behind the delay in the release of the report,"
said Gordon McBean, an ACIA participant from the Institute
for Catastrophic Loss Reduction at the University of
Western Ontario. "They don't even think they ought to
reduce their emissions, period."
But to truly reduce the impact on the Arctic, global
emissions have to be reduced by a whopping 50 percent
before the year 2050, McBean told IPS.
The Kyoto Protocol, which has not been ratified in the
seven years since it was created because the United
States and Russia, among others, will not support it,
would reduce emissions a mere 5 percent by 2012.
"Kyoto was just a first step, we need a strategy to
get to a 50 percent reduction," McBean said.
Even Canada, which strongly supports Kyoto and emissions
reductions, has done little to reduce its own pollution,
he said.
Government inaction on climate change by Canada and
the United States is due in large part to the failure
of the general public to apply pressure on the issue,
says Watt-Cloutier.
"People don't seem to understand that what they do on
a daily basis has a direct impact on the people and
wildlife of the north," she said, adding that she hopes
people will begin to see that their actions -- their
choice of vehicle, for example -- can produce negative
consequences for others and future generations.
"People do want to do the right thing, but they just
don't realise that the Arctic is melting and they are
responsible," she said. (END/2004)
© Copyright 2004 IPS - Inter Press
Service
Special report
Climate
change
Graphics
CO2
emissions
The
world in the 2050s
The
greenhouse effect
Interactive
Guide
to drilling for oil in the Arctic
Calculate
your personal carbon count
Key resources
The
Kyoto protocol
Bjorn
Lomborg: Are we doing the right thing?
Useful links
UN framework
convention on climate change
Greenpeace
Friends of
the earth
FAIR USE NOTICE
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which
has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright
owner. We are making such material available in our
efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political,
human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social
justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair
use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for
in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance
with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this
site is distributed without profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
information for research and educational purposes. For
more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml.
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site
for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use',
you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
|
Marine
Drive 
