Arctic - ice-free in 23 years

News in The Guardian last week that levels of sea ice around the North Pole now stand at their lowest ever levels. Since satellite measurements began thirty years ago, arctic ice cover has decreased by about a third, with a rapid decline setting in after 2002 - it is estimated the arctic could be ice-free in 23 years!

Photo: Certainly no climate control yet outside this Hair saloon

Mark Serreze, a scientist with the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre at Colorado University, said that he was 'amazed':

'If you asked me a couple of years ago when the Arctic could lost all of its ice, then I would have said 2100, or 2070 maybe. But now I think that 2030 is a reasonable estimate. It seems that the Arctic is going to be a very different place within our lifetimes, and certainly within our childrens' lifetimes.'

The lowest recorded figure before this year for sea ice cover was 5.3 million square kilometres. This year, the cover has receded to a mere 4.4 million square kilometres. Although changes in wind and ocean currents have helped the decline, Dr Serreze said that anthropogenic global warming was the main culprit. There is also news that the Greenland ice cap is melting so quickly that it is triggering earthquakes as pieces of ice several cubic kilometres in size break off.