Ice Free North Pole

[Vandyyke]

June 27, 2008

Chance Of Ice Free North Pole This Summer 50/50
Yikes:

The North Pole may be briefly ice-free by September as global warming melts away Arctic sea ice, according to scientists from the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado.
"We kind of have an informal betting pool going around in our center and that betting pool is 'does the North Pole melt out this summer?' and it may well," said the center's senior research scientist Mark Serreze.

It's a 50-50 bet that the thin Arctic sea ice, which was frozen last autumn, will completely melt away at the geographic North Pole, Serreze said...

"Five years ago, to think that we'd even be talking about the possibility of the North Pole melting out in the summer, I would have never thought it," he said...

"If you talked to me or other scientists just a few years ago, we were saying that we might lose all or most of the summer sea ice cover by anywhere from 2050 to 2100," Serreze said. "Then, recently, we kind of revised those estimates, maybe as early as 2030. Now, there's people out there saying it might be even before that. So, things are happening pretty quick up there."

[EricFoy]

... And that will affect me... how?

[Vandyyke]

How will effect you?


   Governments are scrambling to secure rights to the oil, trade routes and there is now a perceived security risk. But I'm not sure what you mean by effect you personally?


             nothing to get heated up over!