Arctic sea could be `free of ice` by 2040, warn scientists

New Delhi: A new report estimates that the Arctic sea would be almost free of sea ice by 2040 – the earlier estimate was 2070.

As per the new research, the Arctic sea has been thawing at a rapid pace over the past three decades, making the ice to fall by more than half.

The latest evaluation conducted by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, which includes more than 90 scientists, found that projections for the melting of the Arctic sea have been “underestimated”. Instead the region had been warming twice as fast as the rest of the world for the past 50 years, the report found.

The report also found that snow cover in the Arctic regions has significantly decreased.

According to the scientists, while the point of no return for the ice has passed, efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions could help mitigate some of the predicted impacts of climate change on the Arctic and the rest of the world.

The melting of glaciers in the Arctic has impact on rising incidence of droughts, floods and heat waves. The warming in the Arctic affects the ocean currents and the winds which affect the monsoon across the world, thereby affecting food production and cropping patterns. This would also cause sea level to rise, which in turn affects the coastal cities.

Scientists say the production of carbon dioxide must be cut as it warms up the environment.

Meanwhile, NASA had said that sea ice loss in the Arctic was on average 8,300 square miles per year between 1976 and 1996, compared with 19,500 square miles per year between 1996 and 2013, showing it had more than doubled in that period.