The EU’s science framework includes a significant amount of emphasis on better understanding climate change. A Dec ‘05 meeting lead to the production of a book (PDF) on sea ice research, pulling together much of the science available on changes in the Arctic region.

The wide-ranging papers in the book cover the methods used to measure ice thickness, on scales from basinwide down to local; the results obtained; the modelling of ice thickness;and the implications for Man’s activities. Palaeoclimatic studies are also described, which reveal periods during the past 100,000 years when the Arctic Ocean has been ice-free, a challenge to our understanding of Earth system processes. Since the disappearance of the Arctic sea ice is literally the most visible aspect of global warming in action – we can see the change in the face of the planet from space – it is appropriate that the European Commission should take the initiative in seeking to understand this phenomenon.

Peter Wadhams (University of Cambridge)

An Inuit activist is honoured by the United Nations Developmet Program for highlighting the harmful effects of greenhouse gases on Arctic communities.

Summary of arctic impacts.

From the arctic peoples website:

The impacts of change

Evidence of climate change is being seen right now in indigenous communities in the Arctic. Some people outside of the Arctic assume that climate change would be a good thing for Arctic peoples, if it means that the weather will get warmer. Unfortunately, that is unlikely to be the case. Arctic peoples are well adapted to their environment, and to using the plants and animals that are adapted to the cold northern weather. As the weather gets warmer, people, plants and animals are becoming stressed.

Saami are seeing their reindeer grazing pastures change, Inuit are watching polar bears waste away because of a lack of sea ice, and peoples across the Arctic are reporting new species, particularly insects. Some communities are having to sand-bag their shorelines to try to slow down an increase in coastal erosion, while in others, buildings, pipes, and roads are slumping because the permafrost is thawing. Vital travel routes linking communities to each other and to harvesting sites are becoming dangerously unpredictable. Routes across the ice become dangerous when the ice thins, or thaws at times different from the past, and water routes can also become dangerous as water flows change.

Cutting out the middleman, a superb concept, perhaps most brilliantly communicated by Douglas Adams in ‘Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy’ is made possible in relation to climate change thanks to the blog of the “Indigenous Peoples at the Arctic Council“.

Definetly worth a visit…