Arctic powers gather for Alaska talks as pace of global warming threatens ice cap
by Robin McKie Science editor from on (#QT38)
US to host summit of polar nations as fears grow that the Earth's frozen wastes are losing their ability to deflect harmful rays
Scientists in Alaska will raise the vexed issue of methane and "black carbon" pollution as they discuss tipping-point dangers posed by global warming in the Arctic.
A crucial meeting of the Arctic Council, in Anchorage, comes amid evidence that the polar region is warming faster than any other place on Earth and that sea ice coverage there has shrunk by nearly a third since 1979. Researchers now fear that new threats to climate stability are about to be unleashed in the Arctic. Warming in high latitudes is causing permafrost in Siberia and northern Canada to thaw and release plumes of methane stored there, they say. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas and these releases threaten to trigger secondary rises in global temperatures.
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