Northwest Passage melting, fast

News report on the recent opening of parts of the legendary Northwest Passage through the polar ice sheets.
drattussays...

Article I ran across recently got me thinking about this so I gathered a few details which might be interesting. First a few visuals.

Satellite imagery of the arctic ice sheets dated September 4 2001, September 4 2006, and the most recent at September 4 2007.

As you can see the ice sheets are melting, and fast. The Northwest passage which has been a legend of sorts for as long as we've known about the area is about to become very real, it's all but open now and will be soon. The estimates used to be a ice free summertime Arctic somewhere between 2070 and 2100, then 2050, now they are estimating as early as 2030. 23 years. Interesting thing seems to be that as it melts that in itself accelerates the melt, dark water absorbs heat the white ice used to reflect, 1/3 of it gone in the 30 years we've tracked it.

The Guardian, a British newspaper, did a short article on the subject which can be found here.

The estimates and more esoteric work have always been easier to argue or ignore but it's starting to take a pretty solid form which is hard to deny these days. Yes, the estimates are still subject to change but the problem is no longer one we can really deny. Only debate left seems to be what to do about it.

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