From the New York Times. Melting Sea Ice. In the Arctic Ocean, Human Induced Global Warming has already dissolved three thousand year old ice at The Hunt Ice Shelf.


OPENING WATER The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, a study commissioned four years ago by the United States and the seven other countries with Arctic territory, projects that rising global concentrations of heat-trapping emissions will drive up temperatures particularly quickly at high latitudes. Some benefits are predicted. For instance, expanding areas of open water in summer could be a boon to whales and cod stocks. The ice retreat could also create summertime shipping shortcuts between the Atlantic and Pacific and allow oil and gas exploration in previously ice-cloaked waters. But a host of troubles lie ahead as well. The loss of sea ice, for example, could hurt both polar bears and Inuit seal hunters. Details are available on the Web at www.amap.no/acia.