Arctic, cont.

Woo! The good news comes in faster than I can post it!

The global sea level rise caused by climate change, severely threatening many of the world's coastal and low-lying areas from Bangladesh to East Anglia, is proceeding faster than UN scientists predicted only five years ago, Professor Chris Rapley, director of the British Antarctic Survey, said yesterday....

The present prediction of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, from its third assessment report in 2001, is that global sea levels will rise by between 9cm and 88cm by 2100, depending on a number of factors including how far emissions are controlled, with a best guess of about 50cm over the century....

But the new evidence, from a series of scientific papers published this year, indicates that this rate would be exceeded, said Professor Rapley, who runs the world's leading institute on Antarctic science - although he could not say what any new rate would be....

Last week, two American studies showed that the melting of the winter sea ice in the Arctic had accelerated enormously in the past two years, with a section the size of Turkey disappearing in just 12 months.

Just so we're clear, Turkey's total surface area: 780,580 km². If that loss of polar ice continues without accelerating - and the whole point is exactly that it is accelerating, but stay with me - the entire arctic polar ice cap (upper range: 12 million km²) would be gone in 15 years. That's probably overstating the case (I imagine the ice cap would reform to a small extent in winter) but nevertheless, the ice-free arctic seems to be coming, whatever we do.

If there's any good news here - and yes, I'm reaching - it's that Canada's northern resources will be more accessible. But don't worry, I'm sure we'll find a way to screw the First Nations like we always do. We've got a reputation to uphold, after all. Additionally, maybe Churchill, Manitoba will finally be the bustling port of call we've always wanted it to be.