Originally published November 4 2005
Arctic Sea shelf shrinking for the fourth straight year
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
While the environment usually bounces back from a heat wave, the artic is showing no signs of cooling this year. Given the trend in warming, many scientists fear that these are the beginnings of global warming.
THE Arctic ice shelf has melted for the fourth straight year to its smallest area in a century, apparently driven by rising temperatures that appear linked to a build-up of greenhouse gases.
Scientists at NASA and America's National Snow and Ice Data Centre, which have monitored the ice via satellites since 1978, say the total Arctic ice in 2005 will cover the smallest area since they started measuring.
It is the least amount of Arctic ice in at least a century, according to both the satellite data and shipping information going back many more years, according to a report from the groups.
As of September 21, the Arctic sea ice area had dropped to 5.31 million square kilometres, the report said.
From 1978 to 2000, the sea ice area averaged 7 million square kilometres.
The report said the melting trend had shrunk Inuit hunting grounds and endangered polar bears, seals and other wildlife.
The report said if melting rates continued, the summertime Arctic might be completely ice-free before the end of the century, echoing last year's findings from the Arctic Council, an eight-nation report by 250 experts.
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