Artic ice melting in 10 years

I belong to a generation that is experiencing the changes in climate. When I was in primary school, I studied the concept of "permanent glaciers". Those are glaciers that never melt, despite the season. We have (or used to have) some in the Alps, but the two recurrent and most relevant ones were obviously the ones at the North and South Poles. Since I was a kid, I was led to believe that those glaciers will always be there, unless something catastrofic happened.
During a trip to Stockholm a few years ago  I learnt about lives lost over centuries of expeditions across the Northwest Passage, a a sea route through the Arctic Ocean , along the northern coast of North America via waterways amidst the Canadian Arctic Archipelago connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. For centuries human beings have tried to find ways to cross the passage, as this would have immense benefits to trade and commerce, but most failed and died with their entire crew lost amid the glaciers.


All of this is now changing. On September 17th, 2007, the Northwest Passage was reported ice free for the first time since satellite records began in 1978.
Climate models had projected the passage would eventually open as warming temperatures melted the Arctic sea ice—but no one had predicted it would happen this soon.
"We're probably 30 years ahead of schedule in terms of the loss of the Arctic sea ice," said Mark Serreze, a senior scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado.

Today, as I was writing this blog, BBC News
announced that Arctic ice could be melted completely during summer within 10 years (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8307272.stm). Again, scientists had foreseen this to happen, but not that soon.  Professor Peter Wadham, from the University of Cambridge, who has been studying Arctic ice since the 60s, said "It's like man is taking the lid off the northern part of the planet...You'll be able to treat the Arctic as if it were essentially an open sea in the summer".
Our governments are reacting quickly to those events. But not as you'd expect to understand the gravity of the problem and take actions to limit damages to our ecosystem and (if it was at all possible) reverse the situation.
The rapid melting is spurring international competition for control over the newly accessible shipping lanes and exposed natural resources.
Canada, for example, claims it has full rights over the parts of the passage that pass its territory. The U.S. and European Union say the passage is in international waters. Meanwhile Russia laid claim to the sea floor at the North Pole, planting a flag there in the hopes of securing the Arctic's potential bonanza of oil and minerals.
Once again profit and commercial interests take priority over social and ecological issues affecting all of us, wherever we live, and all of other species living on this planet.



It's worth noting some of the catastrophic effects ice melting could create to the planet

1. Climate changes: Earth's climate is largely regulated by the thermohaline circulation (THC). Simply said, this is a combination of currents that brings warm water from the Caribbean up north towards the North Pole and is regarded as one of the factors that make Europe climate temperate. Likewise, as warm water flows north, deep cold water goes down south, as in a conveyor belt that links most oceanic basins on the planet. The thermohaline circulation is therefore sometimes called the ocean conveyor belt, the great ocean conveyor, or the global conveyor belt and has effects on global climate. Massive influx of freshwater from melting ice into the ocean could cause a slowdown (some say shutdown) of the ocean conveyor belt, which could result in unpredictable, drastic and sudden climate changes to the entire planet.
   
   
2. Rising of sea levels will affect million of people living along coastlines in developed and emerging countries. Tuvalu, a small country in the Pacific Ocean is the first victim of sea level rising.  Tuvalu has no industry, burns little petroleum, and creates less carbon pollution than a small town in America. This tiny place nevertheless is on the front line of climate change.  Tuvalu is the first country where people are trying to evacuate because of rising seas, but it almost certainly will not be the last. Maldives government ministers are taking scuba lessons and learning underwater signs in preparation for an unprecedented Cabinet meeting at the bottom of the ocean intended to highlight the threat global warming poses to the low-lying nation.
   
   
3. Serious threats of extinction for animal species living at the North Pole, relying on the ice surface for their movements. Each year more polar bears are found dead as they have to swim longer and longer distances between icebergs. Most of them are now drowning because of exhaustion. Penguins are affected too in their migration to bring food back to their chicks.