Climate Change Taking Over

Yes Virginia, There Really Was a North Pole

What is the most reprinted newspaper editorial of all time? Of course, it is Francis Pharcellus Church’s reply to Virginia O’Hanlon’s letter to the editor, written in 1897, about the existence of Santa Clause. Published in the New York Sun, the editorial reply assures little Virginia that, yes, Santa exists, “… as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist …” Back then, no one would have thought to ask about the existence of Santa’s home – the North Pole – because everyone knew the “pole” was stuck in a mass of ice at the top of the world, ice that has existed from the beginning of time and would last forever. The idea that the North Pole ice would someday melt away, at least for a few months of the year, could not have been imagined.

But today, the unimaginable is about to happen. Due to global climate change, scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center believe that within a few years, the polar ice may completely disappear each summer, allowing boats to sail across the top of the world. The good news for Santa is that the North Pole should freeze over again later in the year, in time for his Christmas Eve around-the-world excursion. But this annual cycle of melting and refreezing of large areas of Arctic sea ice marks a dramatic shift in the earth’s climate, possibly having dire consequence for the survival of our species.

“Five years ago, to think that we’d even be talking about the possibility of the North Pole melting out in the summer, I would have never thought it,” says Mark Serreze, a senior research scientist at the Center. “Things are happening pretty quick up there.” Only a few years ago, scientists predicted that the Artic sea ice might disappear in 50 to 100 years; then they revised their predictions, saying it could happen by 2030. Now it is a possibility within a couple of years.

What does the melting North Pole mean for us? It is symptomatic of a biosphere out of balance, leading to higher temperatures, expanding deserts, extreme floods, rising sea levels, worsening air pollution, loss of species, and the spread of disease, all on a global scale. According to Serreze, those who argue that the melting Arctic sea ice is just earth’s natural cycle of cooler periods followed by warmer periods are wrong. “It’s not cyclical … we’ve known for at least 30 years, from our earliest climate models, that it’s the Arctic where we’d see the first signs of global warming.”

The shrinking ice in the Arctic region led to a remarkable event in 2007: for the first time in recorded history, an opening appeared through the fabled Northwest Passage, a shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the Canadian Arctic. Scientists have predicted that the Passage might eventually open, but no one expected it this soon.

Who cares if the Northwest Passage opens up for a few months of the year? An open Passage could save time and fuel costs for ships that currently travel through the Suez or Panama Canals, and it would make accessible valuable petroleum, natural gas, and mineral reserves that may be located nearby. (The area inside the Arctic Circle may hold as much of 13 percent of the world’s undiscovered petroleum and 30 percent of the undiscovered natural gas.) Canada has claimed rights over parts of the Passage, the U.S. and the European Union argue that the Passage is in international waters, and Russia has planted its flag on the sea floor under the North Pole. As melting continues, it will be interesting to see how the issue of rights to the Arctic region, including the Northwest Passage, plays out in the arena of international politics.

Francis Pharcellus Church ended his famous editorial with the words, “A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, [Santa] will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.” Little did he know that Santa’s workshop would someday risk sinking to the ocean bottom as a result of global warming gases emitted by our cars, factories, and power plants. The best Christmas present to give this year may be a donation to one of the many environmental groups fighting to reduce greenhouse gases and reverse climate change.

FOR MORE INFORMATION
See:
(1) Zachary Coile’s August 12, 2008, San Francisco Chronicle article, Rush to Arctic as Warming Opens Oil Deposits;
(2) George Bryson’s August 3, 2008, Anchorage Daily News story, For Second Year in a Row, Melt May Open Northwest Passage;
(3) Alan Duke’s June 27, 2008, CNN.com article, North Pole Could be Ice-free This Summer, Scientists Say;
(4) John Roach’s September 17, 2007 National Geographic News article, Arctic Melt Opens Northwest Passage;
(5) the National Snow and Ice Data Center’s web site at http://nsidc.org/; and
(6) the Durham University International Boundaries Research Unit’s illustration, Maritime Jurisdiction and Boundaries in the Arctic Region, at http://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/ibru/arctic.pdf.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Richard Crume works as an environmental engineer and is an Adjunct Associate Professor at North Carolina A&T State University, where he teaches a class on air pollution assessment and control. Richard lives with his family in Chapel Hill.