Alaska sea ice shows effect of climate change - Boston Globe
over ridges of buckling ice and through pools of turquoise water, where normally there would be a vast sheen of ice and snow. Escorted by an Eskimo guard toting a shotgun to protect them from roving polar bears, Jones and a fellow climate researcher were racing to retrieve scientific instruments that gauge the thickness of the ice, which they worried could be lost to the... Here, as close to the top of the world as you can get in America, the signs are serious indeed: The Arctic Ocean is melting faster than at any time on record. This February, the sea ice that stretches from North America to Russia reached its lowest-known winter extent and began melting 15 days earlier than usual. That continued a three-decade trend that has seen the ocean’s ice lose about 65 percent of its mass and about half of its reach during the summer. In 20 or 30 more years, the Arctic Ocean could be nearly devoid of ice in the summer, climate scientists believe. But the changes that are incipient here in New England are already acute in Barrow, where the average temperature has risen 3. 6 degrees since 1921 — more than twice the rise of average global temperatures. Source: www.bostonglobe.com
