Arctic ‘will be an open sea within a decade’

THE Arctic Ocean will be an “open sea” almost entirely free from ice within a decade, the latest data released yesterday indicates.

Ice cover during the summer months will have entirely disappeared within 20 years, but most of the decrease will happen before 2020, leaving the Arctic Ocean clear for marine transport.

The Catlin Arctic Survey, completed earlier this year by a team led by explorer Pen Hadow, is the latest research into the condition of Arctic ice.

Drilling and observation figures obtained during a 450km route across the northern part of the Beaufort Sea suggest the area is almost entirely made up of young, “first-year” ice, whereas the region traditionally consists of older, thicker “multi-year” ice.

Peter Wadhams, Professor of Ocean Physics and Head of the Polar Physics Group, has spearheaded the team analysing the results.

He said: “The summer ice cover in the Arctic will completely vanish in 20 to 30 years.

“There won’t be any sea ice there at all.

“In much less time than that, the ice in summer will be shrinking back to this last bastion north of Greenland and Ellesmere Island, so within a decade we will see a largely ice-free Arctic Ocean in summer.

“It won’t be very long before we have to start thinking of the Arctic as an open sea.”

Man has taken the lid off the northern end of his planet and we can’t put that lid back on again.

“There will be a small enough area left that you can regard the Arctic Ocean as open as far as transport is concerned for instance

“You’ll be able to sail across the Arctic Ocean from Bering Strait to the Atlantic without any hindrance.”

Meanwhile, the world may have to wait until the dying seconds of a United Nations climate summit in December for a global deal to channel business dollars into low-carbon energy, industry and analysts said yesterday.

Senior executives warned progress so far in UN-led climate talks was inadequate to guarantee the future of low-carbon markets which could transform how the world gets its energy.

Political posturing may delay a deal until midnight on the last day of the December 7-18 talks, said the head of the UN climate panel Rajendra Pachauri — who was nevertheless hopeful of a deal to put the world “on the right path”.

“The wiggle room is there even at the stroke of midnight when the conference is ending,” said Pachauri, chairman of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).