Thursday 24 April 2008

The report released today shows that the melting of arctic sea ice and the Greenland Ice Sheet is severely accelerated, prompting concerns that both may be close to their 'tipping point'; the point where, because of climate change, natural systems may experience sudden, rapid and perhaps irreversible change.

"When you look in detail at the science behind the recent Arctic changes it becomes painfully clear how our understanding of climate impacts lags behind the changes that we are already seeing in the Arctic," said report co-author and Senior Climate Change Adviser at WWF International's Arctic Programme, Dr Martin Sommerkorn.

"This is extremely dangerous, as some of these changes have the potential to substantially increase the warming of the Earth, beyond what models currently forecast," he added.

Global effect

The new study found that change was occurring in all arctic systems, impacting on the atmosphere and oceans, sea ice and ice sheets, snow and permafrost, as well as species and populations, food webs, ecosystems and human societies.

According to last year's reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), if the entire Greenland Ice Sheet were to melt, sea levels would rise 7.3m, making its status a global concern.

While it is currently impossible to accurately predict how much of the ice sheet will be melting, and over which time, the new report shows there has been a far greater loss of ice mass in the past few years, much more than had been predicted by scientific models.

Likewise, the loss of summer arctic sea ice has increased dramatically. In September 2007, the sea ice shrank to 39% below its 1979-2000 average, the lowest since satellite monitoring began in 1979 and also the lowest for the entire 20th century based on monitoring from ships and aircraft.

Need for Climate Change Bill
The Arctic is not only one of the places on earth most vulnerable to climate change, but also a place where vulnerability is of urgent global relevance. The release of greenhouse gases from its carbon sinks could further fuel global warming.

Emily Lewis-Brown, marine climate change officer at WWF-UK said: "We have already passed the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere which is considered to be safe over the long term. It is imperative that we invest in our future by ensuring that global emissions peak by 2015 at the latest, and then fall steeply."

"The UK has a key role to play in demonstrating global leadership on this issue. WWF-UK calls on the government to introduce the Climate Change Bill with a commitment to reduce all UK linked emissions by at least 80% by 2050," she urged.

WWF will launch the report, Arctic Climate Impact Science - An Update Since ACIA (Arctic Climate Impact Assessment) at today's meeting in Norway of the Arctic Council, the intergovernmental forum of Arctic nations.

The IPCC is a scientific body created by the UN to evaluate the risk of climate change.