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.

The plane is falling

Once upon a time, human beings tried to fly. They built crafts but did not succeed and the reason was simple: the plane they built was not designed to fly and being subject to the law of gravity it would crash.
Our society, so called “civilization”, is not designed to fly. We are in a plane that is falling, but as we cannot see the ground yet we believe the plane is flying.

There are facts that clearly show the society we have built is not well designed to assure long-term, sustainable growth and well-being for the majority of the people living on this planet:

1. 1% of adults alone owned 40% of global assets in the year 2000, and that the richest 10% of adults accounted for 85% of the world total. The bottom half of the world adult population owned barely 1% of global wealth (report from World Institute for Development Economics Research at United Nations University).
   
2. 1.4 billion people (around 25% of the world population) live under the poverty line of $1.25 a day
   
3. Today 1 in 6 people have no access to fresh water. Water consumption due to human activity is growing fast. Instead of countering the problem, governments and international financial institutions are already making sure this scarce but vital resource is privatized and handed to few privileged corporations.
   
4. Global climate changes due to human activities are occurring today, causing disasters affecting million of people and species. As I am writing this blog, BBC News has announced that the Arctic Ocean could be largely ice-free and open to shipping during the summer in as little as ten years' time (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8307272.stm).
   
   
   

   "The Catlin Arctic Survey data supports the new consensus view - based on seasonal variation of ice extent and thickness, changes in temperatures, winds and especially ice composition - that the Arctic will be ice-free in summer within about 20 years, and that much of the decrease will be happening within 10 years.

   "That means you'll be able to treat the Arctic as if it were essentially an open sea in the summer and have transport across the Arctic Ocean."
   Professor Peter Wadham, University of Cambridge
   
   
   

   
   
5. Every year, up to 30,000 species disappear due to human activity alone. At this rate, we could lose half of Earth's species in this century

Ask yourself questions:

• How many people do you know who live with less than $1.25 a day? My answer is none.
  
• How many people do you know who have no access to fresh water? My answer is none.
  

Yet the numbers do not lie. We should expect that 1 out of 4 of our friends live below the poverty line and 1 out of 6 cannot access fresh water. For each 4 people you know who are earning more than $1.25 a day, there is somebody, somewhere else who has to have 2 out 4 friends who are poor. If you know 8 people who are not poor, somewhere somebody else has to have 3 out 4 friends, relatives, family members who are surviving on less than $1.25 a day.

By now the pattern is clear. People who have the education and resources to change things for the better are the ones who do not see the problem first hand as belong to the so called "first world". The worse is that we are so busy with our jobs, daily lives, that we do not stop for a second to acknowledge we live in a flawed world, where a minority of us is given the illusion of well-being, while the majority is abandoned.

The picture below shows where the poor are. If you live in the blue countries, chances are you have seen poverty only on TV.

Percentage of Population Living Under Poverty Line

In China and India, the fastest growing economies in the world, between 21%-40% and 41%-60% respectively, survive with less than $1.25 a day. Though, when you watch the news all you hear is about how fast those economies are growing.
India’s capital of Delhi has a million and a half out of fourteen million living in slums. Mumbai is worst with greater percentage living in slums.
What media tell us is that at 8% growth rate of Indian economy will push per capita GDP to $2,000 level in about twenty to twenty-five years. Assuming that the population does not explode in the near future but continue a healthy 1.5 to 2% growth poverty and slums could end. On the other hand if the above does not happen then slums dwellers will triple in 25 years and so will the poverty.                 

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Our social model is not catering for the needs of the majority of the population and the species who with us inhabit this planet. By prioritizing selfish profit above anything else, a small percentage of us is given the illusion of well-being, while at the same time endangering the survival of our poorer brothers and sisters, depleting natural resources and extinguishing the very existence of animal species. The pursuit of maximum profit at all cost is causing the destruction of the same world we live in. If we don't change direction soon, no profit will be left to be made, the plane will soon crash to the ground.