If you may have been tracking ice conditions in Canada's arctic, as I do, an ex-Nunavummiut, you will have known, since the middle of summer in the South, that the sea ice in the high arctic has been rapidly disappearing.
In fact depending on which website you may use to check ice conditions, the Northwest Passage, the Northern deep water route, seems to have been ice free since middle to late August.
Though some may find this exciting because of the potential for increased faster transportation routes between Asia etc. and us in the West, I'm disturbed. Things, global warming, are moving much faster than I suspect any may have expected, and boy, we are not ready to deal with the potential changes a much faster warming climate will very likely hold for us humans.
The BBC, who seem to have consistently followed the progress or deterioration in the arctic, today is reporting on the opening of the Passage and the significant loss of arctic sea ice.
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Our own Environment Canada, by way of the collaborative Canadian Cryoshere site said:
"As of September 1, Environment Canada analysis indicates a major collapse of the sea ice cover over the Northern Hemisphere extending from Eurasia into the central part of the Arctic Ocean. Sea ice extent in Canadian Arctic is also below normal . Sea ice cover has now reached the lowest level in more than 50 years and is still decreasing. This major decline in sea ice extent is consistent with the general consensus in the sea ice community that the loss of sea ice is accelerating and anthropogenic climate warming is one of the main causes.
For those that may not believe the computer graphics of the ice conditions in the Northwest Passage, shown above, there is always the satellite pictures of M'Clure Strait from the European Space Agency (ESA), one included below along side a graphic map, for reference.
In the ESA picture the island to the North of the Strait (the dark stuff) is Prince Patrick, the island to the North East is Melville (the small chunk of land between these two is, I think, unnamed), the island to the South West is Banks and directly to the South is Victoria Island.
For potential doubters:
See, no sea ice!
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Ultimately, one of the more disturbing outcome of losing sea ice will, contrary to the views of Nunavut's polar biologist, be the loss of the polar bear.
A hint of what may be in store for this iconoclastic mammal can be see here
in this very disturbing photograph taken in Nunavik just last week. I don't know why the guys that took the picture didn't put the poor thing out of it's misery.
Christ it was hunting a porcupine! The fellow, Heiko Wittenborn, who took the picture said:
[he] has taken thousands of photos of Nunavik wildlife over the years, but .... can't shake the haunting image of the polar bear out of his head as he goes to sleep at night.
Emaciated polar bear spotted far from usual range
September 13, 2007
Nunatsiaq News
I don't blame him, nor can I.
Technorati Tags: Arctic, Canada, Climate Change, Global Warming Policy, Inuit, Nunavut