‘Within decade, Arctic Ocean will be ice-free each summer’

October 15th, 2009 LONDON - A top Polar specialist has warned that the Arctic Ocean could be largely ice-free and open to shipping during the summer in as little as ten years' time. "It's like man is taking the lid off the northern part of the planet," Professor Peter Wadhams, from the University of Cambridge, told BBC News.

October 14th, 2009 Explorers: North Pole summers ice free in 10 yearsLONDON — The North Pole will turn into an open sea during summer within a decade, according to data released Wednesday by a team of explorers who trekked through the Arctic for three months The Catlin Arctic Survey team, led by explorer Pen Hadow, measured the thickness of the ice as it sledged and hiked through the northern part of the Beaufort Sea in the north Pole earlier this year during a research project. Their findings show that most of the ice in the region is first-year ice that is only around 1.8 meters (six feet) deep and will melt next summer.

October 7th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The extent of the Arctic Sea ice this year or the area covered by floating ice was the third lowest since satellite measurements were first made in 1979. The ice area at minimum was an increase from the past two years, but still well below the average for the past 30 years.

September 22nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - New findings by scientists indicate that that Arctic ice would last decades longer than thought, and the region won't experience ice-free summers until 2030 or 2040. Some models had previously predicted that the Arctic could be ice free in summer by as soon as 2013, due to rising temperatures from global warming.

September 3rd, 2009 Arctic reverses trend, is warmest in two millenniaWASHINGTON — The Arctic is warmer than it's been in 2,000 years, even though it should be cooling because of changes in the Earth's orbit that cause the region to get less direct sunlight. Indeed, the Arctic had been cooling for nearly two millennia before reversing course in the last century and starting to warm as human activities added greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

August 7th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A climate model has predicted that global warming, combined with nuclear waste, may make the Arctic Ocean a polluted soup by the year 2070. According to a report in New Scientist, Ola Johannessen, director of the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center in Bergen, Norway, and his colleagues, developed the model.

July 16th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has concluded that significant sea ice formation occurred in the Arctic earlier than previously thought, which suggests that sea ice formed in the Arctic before it did in Antarctica. "The results are also especially exciting because they suggest that sea ice formed in the Arctic before it did in Antarctica, which goes against scientific expectation," said scientific team member Dr Richard Pearce of the University of Southampton's School of Ocean and Earth Science based at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS).

July 15th, 2009 LONDON - Reports indicate that the biggest glacier in the Arctic is on the verge of losing a chunk of ice the size of Manhattan. According to a report in New Scientist, a group of scientists and climate change activists who are closely monitoring the Petermann glacier's ice tongue believe that the rapid flow of ice is in part due to warm ocean currents moving up along the coast of Greenland, fuelled by global warming.

July 10th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new research, scientists have obtained evidence for ice-free summers with intermittent winter sea ice in the Arctic Ocean during the Late Cretaceous period, which should help predict how the Arctic is likely to respond to future global warming. The Late Cretaceous, the period between 100 and 65 million years ago leading up to the extinction of the dinosaurs, is crucial in this regard because levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) were high, driving greenhouse conditions.

July 9th, 2009 LONDON - In a new study, scientists have said that as global warming removes the Arctic's icy lid, the region is expected to teem with life by the year 2030. According to a report in New Scientist, the study of what the Arctic looked like just before dinosaurs were wiped off the planet has provided a glimpse of what could be to come within decades.

July 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Data from a NASA Earth-orbiting spacecraft has revealed a dramatic thinning of Arctic sea ice between the winters of 2004 and 2008, with thin seasonal ice replacing thick older ice as the dominant type for the first time on record. The new results provide further evidence for the rapid, ongoing transformation of the Arctic's ice cover.

July 5th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study by scientists has shown a dramatic increase in the amount of fresh water in the Arctic Ocean. Fresh water flowing into or out of the Arctic Ocean plays an important role in ocean circulation and may be a factor in the response of the world ocean to climate change.

July 5th, 2009 WASHINGTON - An analysis by scientists has suggested that the Arctic was an enclosed freshwater lake until about 38 million years ago, when tectonic activity caused it to undergo a transition to an ocean. Recent studies have suggested that beginning about 44 million years ago the Arctic underwent a transition from lake to ocean conditions.

May 8th, 2009 LONDON - UK explorer Adrian Hayes aims to set a new Arctic endurance record. This time the Dubai-based adventurer is hoping to make the longest unassisted Arctic Polar journey in history.

April 18th, 2009 LONDON - In a new research, a team of scientists has found that global warming is not just transforming the land for the Arctic people, but it is also poisoning their food, with mercury levels in seals and beluga whales reaching levels that would be considered unsafe in fish. According to a report in New Scientist, Gary Stern of Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and colleagues did the research.