Arctic could be free of ice during the summers within 10 years

Within the decade, the Arctic Ocean could be nearly free of ice during the summer months.
New data gathered by the Catlin Arctic Survey earlier this year provides further evidence that the sea ice is thinning faster than previously thought, according to Lloyd’s of London.
Data collected by manual drilling on a 450-km route across the northern part of the Beaufort Sea suggests it is nearly exclusively first-year ice.
In the past, this area contained older, thicker, multi-year ice.
The ice floes were 1.8 metres on average, as measured by the CAS ice team. This depth is too thin to survive the summer ice melt, according to a Lloyd’s release.
More than 6,000 measurements were taken on a 73-day, three-person trek that began on Mar. 1, 2009.
“The data is important because it supports the new consensus view — based on seasonal variation of ice extent and thickness, changes in temperature, winds and especially ice composition — that the Arctic will be ice-free in summer within 20 years, and that much of the decrease will occur in half that time,” the release notes.
Loss of arctic sea ice cover could set in motion powerful climate feedbacks that will amplify and accelerate the consequences of global warming, said Dr. Martin Sommerkorn of the WWF International Arctic Programme.
WWF partnered with the Catlin Arctic Survey.
Sommerkorn said reduced ice cover will lead to more greenhouse gases being released from the vast store of carbon locked in the frozen Arctic region.