- WASHINGTON, DC -- Speaking
off the record, scientists studying the current warming of the Arctic
region
intimated that some officials in the Bush administration saw the loss of
Arctic ice and the resultant opening of sea channels such as the Northwest
Passage of Canada as a good thing for the exploration and retrieval of
oil and natural gas from the endangered region.
-
- Over 300 international scientists have just completed
an extensive 1200-page report documenting their exhaustive 4-year Arctic
Climate Impact Assessment study on the rapid warming of the Arctic. The
study was commissioned by the Arctic Council and the International Arctic
Science Committee at a ministerial meeting of the Arctic Council in Point
Barrow, Alaska in 2000. On November 8, the scientists released a 144-page
summary of their findings at a press conference in Washington, DC.
-
- As if out of a scene from the Roland Emmerich's climate
disaster movie, "The Day After Tomorrow," the U.S. State
Department
is criticizing the international panel's call to slow down Arctic warming
by curbing greenhouse emissions into the atmosphere. The State Department,
according to some scientists, is echoing the positions of oil companies
and anti-environmentalist pressure groups like the Cato Institute and
Heritage
Foundation, in dismissing the recent report on Arctic warming. In fact,
President Bush has repeatedly referred to previous scientific studies
pointing
to the effects of global warming as "silly science" based on
"fuzzy math." The chief State Department focal point on the
Arctic
warming issue is Paula Dobriansky, the Undersecretary of State for Global
Affairs, who is seen as a virtual mouthpiece for Vice President Dick
Cheney,
the oil companies, and the anti-environmental groups. She will be trying
to minimize the impact of the Arctic warming report before she attends
the November 24 meeting of the Arctic Council in Reykjavik, Iceland where
the report will be officially released. Before her current stint at the
State Department, Dobriansky was an international affairs adviser with
the law firm Hunton & Williams, whose clients include a number of large
energy companies, including Exxon Mobil.
-
- The report concludes that Arctic warming has increased
dramatically since 1954. Average Arctic winter temperatures have increased
as much as 4 to 7 degrees F (3-4 degrees C) during the past 50 years and
are projected to increase another 7-13 degrees F (4-7 degrees C) over the
next 100 years. Over the past 30 years, the sea-ice extent of the Arctic
has decreased 386,100 square miles (or Texas and Arizona combined). Since
Arctic sea ice is declining at such a rapid rate, maritime access by oil
exploration ships and tankers is viewed by the Bush-Cheney administration
and their oil industry backers as an economic windfall because of increased
access to Arctic resources. Timber companies are also excited about access
to Arctic timber reserves from accessible Arctic seaports. Therefore, the
Bush administration and their corporate sponsors want to downplay the
environmental
catastrophe that will be brought about by an anticipated complete loss
of Arctic ice and the creation of an iceless Arctic Ocean by the end of
the century. Already, British Petroleum and a Russian partner are using
newly-opened shipping channels in the Russian Arctic to begin the off-shore
drilling of natural gas.
-
- The possible opening of the Northwest Passage to maritime
shipping has already prompted Canadian warnings to the United States not
to intrude on its national territory. The United States does not recognize
Canadian sovereignty over its Arctic sea passages. This past summer,
Canada's
largest warship, a fleet of helicopters, and 200 troops engaged in
Operation
Narwhal, the largest Canadian military exercise ever held in the Canadian
Arctic Archipelago. Narwhal was also noteworthy in that U.S. military
participants
and observers were not invited.
-
- The Bush administration and their oil company supporters
have also dismissed concerns that oil spills resulting from increased
maritime
access to Arctic waters cannot be cleaned up because no solutions have
been discovered on how to deal with oil contamination in colder waters,
such as the Arctic. They point to continued problems arising from the Exxon
Valdez disaster in Alaska's Prince William Sound in 1989.
-
- In addition to the loss of the Arctic icepack, scientists
discovered that substantial melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet will
continue
and its eventual melting will raise global sea levels by about 23 feet
(7 meters). That, coupled with glacial melting in the Arctic (in Canada,
Alaska, and Russia) and Antarctic melting, will cause the sea to flood
most of southern and coastal Florida (including the Keys and the
Everglades),
the Mississippi Delta (including the city of New Orleans), a number of
near-sea level islands in the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans, and
the expansion of tidal-influenced bays and rivers worldwide.
-
- Arctic ice melt will also increase ocean salinity and
this affects ocean currents that bring warmer waters to colder regions.
Because saltier water results in colder water sinking, a decrease in
salinity
will result in colder water rising to the surface and threatening the
thermohaline
conveyor belt upon which Europe depends for its temperate climate [see
Dale Allen Pfeiffer's writings on abrupt climate change and the
thermohaline
current in FTW, especially:
-
- http://www.fromthewilderness.com
- /free/ww3/050504_climate_change_pt2.html -- ed.].
-
- The effect is that while temperatures increase in North
America and Asia, regional cooling will take place in Europe. The imbalance
will affect agriculture and the overall eco-system.
-
- The loss of snow cover in the Arctic will mean that less
solar energy will be reflected back into space, thus adding to the warming
of the Arctic's land and water surfaces. Unprecedented rainfall is already
being witnessed on Greenland's Ice Sheet by the local Inuit
inhabitants.
-
- According to the Arctic warming report, the loss of
Arctic
ice and permafrost will also result in the near extinction of a number
of species, including the polar bear, a number of seal species, walruses,
caribou, reindeer, lemmings, voles, and migratory birds such as snow owls.
The Indigenous People of the Arctic will be forced to relocate from floods,
loss of permafrost, coastal erosion from killer storms, building collapse
from destruction of permafrost, and loss of food supply. In addition,
rising
Arctic temperatures are permitting the invasion of destructive insects
such as the spruce beetle which has already decimated 1.6 million hectares
of white spruce and Sitka/Lutz spruce on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula. In
Sweden,
invading moths have destroyed entire forests of birch trees. New species
of birds entering the warmer Arctic tundra regions are also bringing with
them a new disease - West Nile Virus, which threatens both humans and
animals.
-
- The Bush administration, in its unwillingness to
appreciate
the impact of Arctic warming and its desire for expanded oil sources, has
incurred the wrath of the nations and peoples of the Arctic Council. These
are Canada, Denmark, Greenland, Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Norway,
Russia, Sweden, the Aleut International Association, Arctic Athabaskan
Council, Gwich'in Council International, Inuit Circumpolar Conference,
Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North, the Saami Council
along with observers France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, and the
United Kingdom. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Queen Elizabeth have
both championed the efforts to reverse global warming as have Senators
John McCain and Joseph Lieberman.
-
- See also:
-
- "An Arctic Alert on Global Warming," Peter
N. Spotts, Staff writer of
The Christian Science Monitor. November 9th, 2004
-
- http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1109/p01s03-sten.html
-
- "Satellites Record Weakening North Atlantic
Current,"
NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center press release. April 15th, 2004.
-
- http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/2004/0415gyre.html
-
- http://www.fromthewilderness.com
- /members/111104_arctic_meltdown.shtml
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