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September 20, 2012

Arctic Sea Ice Reaches All-Time Low 
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In the latest sign of global warming’s impact, sea ice in the Arctic
has melted to its smallest surface area since record-keeping began.
Arctic ice naturally melts to some degree at this time of year, but this
year’s minimum is nearly 50 percent less than the average from 1979 to
2000. The sea ice reached its apparent low point for the year on Sunday,
when it covered just 24 percent of the surface of the Arctic Ocean. The
previous record low from 2007 was 29 percent. Scientists have long
viewed Arctic sea ice as a key indicator of global warming. On
Wednesday, the environmental group Greenpeace hosted a “Polar
Emergency” event in New York City. Inupiat leader Caroline Cannon,
from Point Hope, Alaska, and the environmental activist Bill Mc Kibben
both addressed the unprecedented melting of Arctic sea ice.

Caroline Cannon: "You know, we knew something was happening with the
climate change, but I think more so now it's critical that we take it to
heart. There's people that rely on that Arctic Ocean. If the ice melts,
it's a scary thought. Because it's who we are, it's where the animals
migrate and my elders rely, the community elders rely on their vitamins
and traditional food the ocean supplies."

Bill Mc Kibben: "There's no place on earth where we see the essential
irony of our moment playing out more perfectly than in the Arctic. We've
melted much of the sea ice in the Arctic. Our response to that has been
not alarm, not panic, not a sense of emergency. Our basic response as a
civilization has been, let's go up there and drill for oil."

 

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