Professor Peter Wadhams, head of the polar ocean physics group at Britain’s Cambridge University said, “The summer ice cover will completely vanish in 20 to 30 years but in less than that it will have considerably retreated.”
“In about 10 years, the Arctic ice will be considered as open sea.”
“An average thickness of 1.8 metres is typical of first year ice, which is more vulnerable in the summer. And the multi-year ice is shrinking back more rapidly,” said Wadhams.
“It’s a concrete example of global change in action.
“With a larger part of the region now in first year ice, it is clearly more vulnerable. The area is now more likely to become open water each summer, bringing forward the potential date when the summer sea ice will be completely gone.”
Doctor Martin Sommerkorn, senior climate change adviser for the World Wide Fund for Nature’s international Arctic programme, said the survey the ice meltdown situation which is happening “faster than we thought”.
“Remove the Arctic ice cap and we are left with a very different and much warmer world.”
Loss of sea ice cover will “set in motion powerful climate feedbacks which will have an impact far beyond the Arctic itself.”
“This could lead to flooding affecting one quarter of the world’s population, substantial increases in greenhouse gas emission from massive carbon pools and extreme global weather changes.”
“Today’s findings provide yet another urgent call for action to world leaders ahead of the United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen in December to rapidly and effectively curb global greenhouse gas emissions.”