An ice free arctic?

Svenska Dagbladet has an alarming article on the arctic ice sheet. Researchers fear that the North Pole ice may melt away completely this summer. This has never happened before. It may not be so catastrophic in in itself (Since the polar ice is sea ice, melting does not affect sea level. But larger ice free areas do absorb more solar energy and accelerate warming) but it is a symptom of what is happening to our climate. It shows - again - that things are worse than we thought. Not only sea ice melts faster than we could imagine just a few years ago. The same is true for the Greenland land ice as was reported not long ago by Science Daily . The yearly freahwater output from Greenland is increasing faster than thought before. The water masses bound in the Greenland ice are huge. If all the ice were to melt, sea level around the globe would increase more than 6 meters!

Climate change is nothing new. I spent many years studying the history of life on earth and climate has changed all the time. We have had ice ages as well as warmer periods than today. Even during historical times there have been changes. When the Vikings colonized Greenland is was warmer (hence the name) and when centuries later dutch painters painted their famous winter landscapes we were in the so-called Little Ice Age. Climate change is a naturlar thing, which nature survives. But unnatural change goes too fast, really. And the question is, even if nature will survive and life on earth will as well, are we willing to pay the price of much human suffering? When we now are able to do something about it?

I heard Stefan Edman talking about the subject lately. One of the best talks I heard on the subject. He said, the climate problem is a problem of injustice. It is about how most resources are consumed by a little minority. We need to live in balance with our environment and to share the richness of creation. Creation is our home, given to us to stewart - not to exploit.