Catlin Survey predicts ice-free Arctic summers
15 October 2009
The Arctic Ocean is likely to be largely ice-free every summer within ten years. New data released today by the Catlin Arctic Survey and WWF supports the new consensus view that the Arctic will be mostly open water in summer by 2020.
The Catlin Arctic Survey team, led by Pen Hadow, carried out more than 6,000 measurements and observations between March and May this year on a 450km route across the northern part of the Beaufort Sea.
This region of the Arctic Ocean is normally covered with thick, multi-year ice at that time of year (the Arctic winter), but the survey results instead indicate a thin, first-year ice covering.
The findings have been analysed by the Polar Ocean Physics Group at the University of Cambridge, headed up by leading oceanographer Professor Peter Wadhams, who says:
“With a larger part of the region now 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.”
“The Catlin Arctic Survey data supports the new consensus view, based on seasonal variation of ice extent and thickness, changes in temperatures, winds and especially ice composition, that the Arctic will be ice-free in summer within about 20 years, and that much of the decrease will be happening within 10 years.”
Watch Professor Wadhams at the official press conference:
The Catlin Arctic Survey team
Catlin Arctic Survey expedition leader Pen Hadow says: “This is the kind of scientific work we always wanted to support by getting to places in the Arctic which are otherwise nearly impossible to reach for research purposes.
“It’s what modern exploration should be doing. Our on-the-ice techniques are helping scientists to understand better what is going on in this fragile ecosystem.”
Watch Pen Hadow at the official press conference:
A dramatically warmer world
Dr. Martin Sommerkorn from WWF International Arctic Programme, which partnered with the Survey, says: “The Arctic sea ice holds a central position in our Earth’s climate system. Take it out of the equation and we are left with a dramatically warmer world.
“Today’s findings provide yet another urgent call for action to world leaders ahead of the UN climate summit in Copenhagen to rapidly and effectively curb global greenhouse gas emissions.”
Watch WWF's Martin Sommerkorn at the official press conference:
“The Catlin Arctic Survey and WWF study sets out the stark realities of a rapidly changing climate and illustrates the risk of an ice free summer in the Arctic in the not-too-distant future. This further strengthens the case for an ambitious global deal in Copenhagen in December which the UK is fully committed to achieving.”
Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
You can…
- hear more from Prof Peter Wadhams on the survey results
- read the Climate Witness statement from Catlin team member Ann Daniels
- Vote Earth for a strong global climate deal
- see the dramatic Arctic photography of Catlin team member Martin Hartley, below...
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