SUNS  4318 Friday 6 November 1998


ENVIRONMENT: GLOBAL WARMING THREATENS ARCTIC WILDLIFE

Washington, Nov. 4 (IPS/Danielle Knight) -- Scientists have sent a warning to negotiators of an international climate treaty, currently meeting in Argentina, that the melting of the Arctic Ocean ice-cap is threatening the existence of the region's wildlife.

The global warming effect caused by the burning of fossil fuels could "spell doom" for the seabirds, walruses and polar bears in the Artic, scientists said.

"The delegates in Buenos Aires have to be reminded that global warming is not something which will happen in the future," says Kalee Kreider, the U.S. director of Greenpeace's global warming campaign. "It is happening now, most dramatically in the Arctic. Polar bears may be some of the earliest victims, but the rest are not far behind."

The western Arctic is warming at least twice as fast as the rest of the globe as predicted by scientists studying the effect of increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. As temperatures rise, scientists engaged in a research project in the region are witnessing the thinning and retreating of Arctic ice packs which provide habitat to wildlife, Greenpeace says.

"If they lose their ice platform, we're not going to have any polar bears," says Charles Jonkel, a scientist with the Montana-based Great Bear Foundation.

"The Black Guillemot seabirds are trying to tell us that Arctic Alaska has changed greatly in the last 30 years, and more changes are on the way," adds George Divoky, a researcher at the Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska.

Most scientists agree that the cause of such an accelerated warming and melting of Arctic ice probably stems from carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases released through the burning of fossil fuels, including coal, oil and gas.

If these emissions are not reduced, scientists say temperatures could continue to increase around the world and will lead to an increase the risk of storms, floods, heat waves and droughts.

The threat was readily acknowledged by nearly all countries of the world when they gathered in the Japanese city of Kyoto last December to negotiate the climate change treaty. Industrialised nations agreed to reduce the emissions of six greenhouse gases by an average of six percent from 1990 levels, and to complete the reductions between 2008 and 2012.

Negotiators currently meeting in Buenos Aires face the hard part: setting up the complex machinery to implement the remedies.

Environmental groups, meanwhile, have been urging governments to take strong action to reduce emissions as soon as possible. For the past several years, Greenpeace has been working with scientists specialising in impacts of climate change in the polar regions, where the most dramatic impacts of global warming are predicted as the ice start to melt.

"The work of these scientists shows even more clearly why governments must take action now to stop climate change," says Melanie Duchin, a Greenpeace campaigner based in Alaska.

After following the edge of the Arctic pack ice between Alaska and Russia's Chukotka region, a recent Greenpeace expedition reported this week that the ice-edge is much further north than usual, with potentially dire consequences for wildlife. Similar Arctic ice retreats have been observed recently by a joint Canadian/American expedition where scientists found the ice to be much thinner than normal and much warmer and less salty due to recent melting. Satellite observations indicate nearly a 3% per decade decrease in ice cover, with the rate of loss accelerating over the past 10 years.

Polar bears are particularly vulnerable to this retreat, say scientists.

"There are two things that can affect the polar bear: one is the number of ringed seal for them to feed on, and the second is access to those seals," says Lori Quakenbush, a researcher with the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, who joined the expedition. "The ice plays a big role in both of those questions."

Any change in the ice will affect the food chain of which polar bears are a part. The algae that grows on the bottom of the ice is eaten by the plankton which in turn is eaten by the arctic cod which are in turn eaten by the ringed seals which are they eaten by the polar bears, she explains.

According to Quakenbush, these bears feed almost exclusively on ringed seals that they hunt from the ice edge or through the pack ice itself. The bears cannot catch the seals in the water, but stalk them when they come through the ice to breathe.

"The retreat of the ice also means that more bears are trapped on or near shore in the summer or fall, and are more likely to run foul of humans and garbage dumps, or in the case of Alaska, with the industrial complex associated with oil development on Alaska's North slope," says Greenpeace.

The University of Alaska's Divoky, who has been studying the Black Guillemot in the Arctic for more than 20 years, says the warmer temperatures and retreating sea ice have had a direct effect on the
seabirds ability to survive. Because the birds rely wholly on food which is at the ice edge, the ice retreat has led to a dramatic decline of the species, says Divoky.

Walruses, who rest, molt and bear their young on the ice, are also endangered from the retreating ice.

As the ice thins, it is less able to support the weight of a single walrus, resulting in a loss of critical habitat, says Brendan Kelly, a scientist with the School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences at the
university, who has been studying the region for more than 20 years.

"With the ice edge so much further north than usual, it's over deeper water, and it makes it much more difficult for the nursing mothers and their young to reach the clams and other organisms on the sea bed which they rely on for food," says Kelly. "From what we've seen on this trip, the walrus cow to calf ratio is much lower than we would like to see, and if the trend continues, we will definitely see a decline in the population."