Toxics Alert: Arctic Temperatures Highest in 2,000 Years

The Arctic is warmer than it has been in 2,000 years, (1999-2008 being the warmest )even though it should be cooling because of changes in the Earth's orbit that cause the region to get less direct sunlight.The Arctic cooling had been the result of a 21,000-year cycle in the Earth's movement that caused the far north to get progressively less summertime energy from the sun for the last 8,000 years. That process won't reverse for another several thousand years.

Interestingly, the Arctic had been cooling for nearly two millennia before reversing course in the last century due to increase greenhouse gases to the earth's atmosphere.

There are more global warming related bad news from watchers of other waterbodies:

* Reports claim that Alaskan waters are turning acidic from absorbing greenhouse gases potentially endangering the state's $4.6 billion fishing industry.Global warming effects in Alaska also include shrinking glaciers, coastal erosion and the march north of destructive forest beetles formerly held in check by cold winters.

* NASA satellite measurements show that sea ice in the Arctic is more than just shrinking in area, it is dramatically thinning. The volume of older crucial sea ice in the Arctic has shrunk by 57 percent from the winter of 2004 to 2008.

* With the melting of land-based ice, such as the massive Greenland ice cap, sea levels could rise across the world, threatening millions who live in coastal cities.

REPORT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Arctic Temperatures Highest in 2,000 Years

Source: Discovery News,AP, Date: , 2009