THREE BRITISH explorers have set out on a 90-day skiing expedition to the North Pole, measuring sea ice thickness the whole way to find out exactly how fast it is disappearing, according to the Catlin Arctic Survey.
GENEVA: Changes taking place in the Arctic and the Antarctica, as well as the unique conditions existing at those ends of the planet, make the polar regions key to understanding climate change and a host of other topics, scientists said. Polar weather influences climates in areas as far away as the tropics and changes will have effects across the world.
The polar regions have long been expected to warm strongly as a result of anthropogenic climate change, because of the positive feedbacks associated with melting ice and snow. Several studies have noted a rise in Arctic temperatures over recent decades but have not formally attributed the changes to human influence, owing to sparse observations and large natural variability.
Climate change is changing all the rules in the Arctic. The polar ice cap is smaller by some 700,000 square miles than it was in the two decades before 2000. The annual melting of northern ice this year may well surpass last year's - the furthest retreat of Arctic ice in a single year since it was first measured.
A new analysis of ice cores conducted by scientists of National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of Washington (UW) show the existence of connection of the world's coldest continent Antarctica to global warming, as well as to periodic events such as El Ni
