- The Arctic climate is warming rapidly now, and much bigger changes are projected, with average temperatures rising three to nine degrees C over the next 100 years;
- Arctic warming and its consequences have world-wide implications, possibly slowing the ocean circulation that helps distribute heat around the world;
- Arctic vegetation zones may shift, moving the tree line northward;
- Retreating sea ice will reduce habitat for polar bear, walrus, seals and marine birds and change the conditions for fisheries, affecting species diversity;
- Coastal communities and facilities face more exposure to storms and thawing coastal permafrost;
- Shipping opportunities and access to resources will increase, raising new sovereignty and security issues;
- Thawing ground will disrupt transportation, buildings and other infrastructure;
- Inuit and other indigenous people face major economic and cultural impacts;
- Elevated ultraviolet radiation levels will affect people, plants and animals, with the current generation of Arctic young people receiving a 30 per cent higher dose of UV radiation, which can lead to cancer and other health problems;
- Other factors, such as chemical pollution, oil spills and over-fishing may interact to cause other impacts.
Scientists drilling ice cores in Greenland have recovered what appear to be plant remains from nearly 3 km below the surface of the ice.
Team members said reddish clumps of material, found in the muddy ice in the cores, contain what look like pine needles or blades of grass.�
These finds could be the first organic material to be recovered from a deep ice core drilling project. Scientists think the material could be many millions of years old.
The plant material was recovered between the ice sheet and the bedrock at a drilling site in central Greenland, by a team with the North Greenland Ice Core Project.
The presence of plant material suggests the Greenland ice sheet formed very fast.
...last weekend in Nuuk, a gathering of Arctic parliamentarians got a troubling preview of the environmental, health and social impacts that an upward swing of temperatures in the North will cause.
�It�s happening now, and it�s been happening for decades, and it has consequences for the whole world,� Robert Corell, chair of the ACIA, told the group.
Corell urged MPs and indigenous leaders from Canada, Denmark, Greenland, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia and Sweden to move out of �the valley of indecision and delay� and convince governments to adopt policies and programs that will help curb the heat-catching greenhouse gases that contribute to warming the earth.
That task will be �like trying to put brakes on a supertanker.�
No one from the U.S., which supported the Arctic Council�s 2000 Barrow Declaration that called for this climate assessment and policy recommendation, was in Nuuk.
Also absent were any MPs, elected territorial officials, or even bureaucrats from Canada�s North, with the exception of Jack Anawak, Canada�s new Arctic ambassador.
