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got this from one of my lj communities..:
The North Pole melts dangerously, from global warming. Polar bears are drowning.
Democratic Nominee Obama Vows to Defeat Climate Change (ENS).
Horrible. :( Click pics for full-size.
The North Pole becomes an 'island' for the first time in history as ice melts (Daily Mail):
The North Pole has become an island for the first time in human history.
Startling satellite pictures taken three days ago show that melting ice has opened up the fabled North-West and North-East Passages - making it possible to sail around the Arctic ice cap....
[T]o climate change scientists it is yet another sign of the damage global warming is inflicting on the planet.
Blocked: The Arctic ice, showing as a pink mass in the 1979 picture, links up with northern Canada (on the left) and Russia (right)
Thawing ocean: The North-West Passage (circled left) and the North-East Passage (top right) are clear of ice
Mark Serreze, a sea ice specialist, described the images as an 'historic event' - but warned they added to fears that the Arctic icecap has entered a 'death spiral.'
The pictures, produced by NASA, mark the first time in at least 125,000 years that the two shortcuts linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans have been ice-free at the same time.
In 2005, the North-East Passage around Russia opened, while the western one, across the top of Canada, remained closed, and last year the position was reversed.
But the satellite data shows that the North-West passage opened last weekend and the remaining tongue of ice blocking the North-Eastern one dissolved a few days later....
If the ice continues to melt at current rates it will soon be possible to sail right across the North Pole.
Many scientists believe that the mass of ice that forms a jagged circle around the North Pole could vanish altogether in the summer by 2030.
Others believe it could take as little as five years for the Pole, currently frozen all year round, to be ice-free between mid-July and mid-September.
Four weeks ago, tourists had to be evacuated from Baffin Island's Auyuittuq National Park in northern Canada because of flooding from thawed glaciers.
The park's name means 'land that never melts'.
The heartbreaking picture of the polar bears with 400 miles to swim to the nearest ice (Daily Mail):
Struggling against the waves, this polar bear faces almost certain death after becoming lost at sea in the Arctic.
It is one of a group of nine to have plunged into the ocean after the ice float they lived on melted.
Scientists found this polar bear swimming in Alaska's Chukchi Sea and fear it and eight others will drown in an impossible 400 mile swim back to shore
The bears were spotted miles from their normal hunting ground by U.S. government oil survey scientists flying over Alaska's Chukchi Sea.
They said the creatures' homing instinct has sent them north towards the edge of the polar cap instead of 60 miles south towards the nearest land.
However, because of global warming, the ice cap has melted so much that it is around 400 miles away - too far for the bears to reach.
Although one group of polar bears is known to have swum 100 miles, they arrived at their destination exhausted, with several drowning along the way.
Animal charity, the World Wide Fund for Nature, said it was considering asking the U.S. government to send a ship, like a modern Noah’s Ark, to rescue some of the bears....
Arctic Ice May Reach Lowest Level On Record In September (eFluxMedia):
Scientists said that the arctic ice is at its second lowest level in the past 30 years or since the satellite records began.
Experts from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) said the latest data shows that the arctic ice is now bellow the 2005 level and that the melting process started earlier this year. This means that it might reach its lowest recorded level in September despite the fact that this year’s temperatures have been lower compared to last year, NSIDC scientists explained.
Ice in the Arctic Ocean is at a climatic "tipping point," as the experts put it. The arctic ice now covers 2.03 million square miles (5.26 million sq km). The lowest level ever was recorded last September when the arctic ice was covering about 1.65 million square miles. Most of that is thin ice which formed during the past year and melts faster.
Just a few years ago, scientist predicted that by 2080 all the Arctic ice will melt during summer. However, the computer models revealed the fact that this could happen much earlier, around 2030 to 2050.
"We could very well be in that quick slide downward in terms of passing a tipping point," said Mark Serreze, senior scientist at the NSIDC.
"It's tipping now. We're seeing it happen now."
According to NASA ice scientist Jay Zwally, if the accelerated melting process continues, within "five to less than 10 years," the Arctic Circle will be ice-free during the summer period.
"It means that climate warming is also coming larger and faster than the models are predicting and nobody's really taken into account that change yet," Zwally said.
Alaska Natives Watch Traditions Melting Away (Toward Freedom).