Despite increasing scientific evidence
that the Arctic environment is already showing the effects of global
warming, the eight nations and six indigenous peoples groups of the
Arctic Council failed last week to reach consensus on how to address
the problem.
The joint declaration from the council acknowledged concern about
the challenges climate change poses for the Arctic environment, but
pressure from the U.S. delegation prevented inclusion of any
specific recommendations.
The council’s statement reflects the strong influence of the Bush
administration, which has refused to call for mandatory cuts in
industrial greenhouse gas emissions and repeatedly questioned the
science that points to the effects of these emissions on the
climate.
The United States is the only member of the council that has not
ratified the Kyoto Protocol, the international accord that requires
modest cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
Aialik Glacier melts into Alaska's Kenai Fjords (Photo by
Dr. Igor Smolyar courtesy NOAA)
The
seven other nations that sit on the council, created in 1996 to
address the common concerns and challenges faced by Arctic residents
and governments, are Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway,
Russia and Sweden. The six indigenous peoples organizations are the
Aleut International Association, the Arctic Athabaskan Council, the
Gwich'in Council International, the Inuit Circumpolar Conference,
the Saami Council, and the Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples
of the North.
The council met in Reykjavik to review the findings of the Arctic
Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA), considered the most comprehensive
peer-reviewed assessment of Arctic climate change ever undertaken.
The final report from the ACIA rests on the work of some 300
scientists and Arctic experts. They found that the Arctic is warming
at nearly twice as fast as the rest of the planet and warned of
dramatic environmental change if industrial greenhouse gases are not
reduced.
Yet the council’s statement makes no call for nations to cut
industrial greenhouse gas emissions, rather it advises them to
review the findings of the ACIA report “as they implement and
consider future policies on global climate change."
Canadian Environment Minister Stéphane Dion said, “The great
stresses put on the unique and fragile Arctic ecosystems have been
fully brought to the world’s attention for the first time today."
Dion said the report would inform Canada's Northern Strategy and
Oceans Policy, but he was vague about the details.
Environmentalists of all political stripes say the council's
statement reflects the politics – not the science – of global
warming.
Seals like this spotted seal depend on ice for their habitat.
(Photo courtesy NMML)
"The
Arctic nations had an opportunity to show real leadership in
response to ACIA and support bigger cuts in CO2 emissions,” said
Samantha Smith, director of WWF's International Arctic Program.
“They missed this opportunity."
But there is a potential upside to the joint declaration, Smith
added.
“Through the policy document, even the Bush administration has
acknowledged what the scientists and people who live in the Arctic
are telling us - climate change is real, it is happening quickly,
and it is going to get worse unless we cut emissions."
In an address to ministers of the Arctic Council nations, U.S.
Under Secretary of State for Global Issues Paula Dobriansky rebuffed
criticism that the administration is not taking a proactive stance
on climate change.
“The United States is committed to ensuring that our policies are
informed by the best information science can provide,” she said,
adding that the administration will take the findings of the ACIA
“into account as it continues to review the science on climate
change.”
Dobriansky touted the U.S. investment in Arctic research and the
administration’s leadership on international efforts to cut methane
emissions and to study mitigation technologies such as carbon
sequestration.
Melting iceberg floating in Tracy Arm Fjord, Alaska, 1999
(Photo courtesy NOAA)
Critics say these efforts
are positive, but contend that cutting greenhouse gas emissions is
the key to curbing climate change and note that the United States is
responsible for more than 25 percent of global greenhouse gas
emissions although it contains less than five percent of the world's
population.
Calling the meeting "disappointing," REP America, the national
grassroots organization of Republicans for environmental protection,
said America’s elected leaders must "end their do-nothing approach
to global warming."
“The Arctic climate assessment is an unambiguous warning that
global warming, a result of carbon dioxide emissions caused by
burning fossil fuels for energy, will have significant, worldwide
impacts, including rising sea levels and disruptive weather
patterns," said Jim DiPeso, REP America policy director. "These
impacts present very serious risks to our nation’s economy and
security, as well as to our environment."
In this computer graphic, Greenland’s 2002 melt extent appears
in pink. The Greenland Ice Sheet melt area increased by 16 percent
from 1979 to 2002. (Image courtesy of Konrad Steffen and
Russell Huff, CIRES, University of Colorado,
Boulder)
REP America supports the McCain-Lieberman
Climate Stewardship Act, which would cap emissions of carbon dioxide
and other heat trapping gases from utilities, refineries, and other
large commercial and industrial sources.
The ACIA’s report makes it clear that sharp cuts in emissions of
the six greenhouse gases governed by the Kyoto Protocol are required
if major changes to the environment are to be avoided.
It warned that at least half the summer sea ice in the Arctic is
projected to melt by the end of this century, as the region is
projected to warm an additional 4 to 7 degrees Celsius (7 to 13
degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100.
Such melt would have devastating consequences for some Arctic
animal species such as seals that live on ice and for local people
who depend on these animals as a primary food source.
It is not just the Arctic that will feel the impacts of global
warming, the report said.
Warming temperatures will melt part of the Greenland Ice Sheet.
Over the long term, Greenland contains enough melt water to
eventually raise sea level by about seven meters (about 23 feet),
the assessment projects.
Globally, more than 17 million people live less than one meter
above sea level in Bangladesh, while places like Bangkok, Thailand;
Calcutta, India; and Manila, Philippines; as well as Florida,
Louisiana and New Jersey in the United States, are also at risk from
rising sea levels.
Read the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment at: http://amap.no/acia/
For more
information visit the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center at: http://www.nsidc.org/
