Sea ice meltdown accelerates

The release of two US studies into rate of melting of the Greenland sea ice have both confirmed that the melting is accelerating.

The first study from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, shows that Arctic perennial sea ice - perennial sea ice remains all year-round - shrank by 14% between December 2001 to December 2005. The loss of sea ice in just 12 months were almost the size of Turkey or about 280,000 sq miles.

The findings was echoed by the Maryland Goddard Space Flight Centre, which found that the perennial sea ice melting rate, which since 1979 when studies began, has suddenly accelerated from 0.15% per year to a massive 6% per year. This indicates that the melting has got more than 30 times faster in a very short period.

If the melting continues the sea ice will be gone by 2070 and it will for the first time in many thousand years be possible to sail to the North Pole. If the observed acceleration continues, this will become a reality decades before.

Jim Hansen, the Director of the Goddard Institute issued a direct warning to the world's politicians: "We have a very brief window of opportunity to deal with climate change. No longer than 10 years at the most before it is too late."

While the melting of sea ice will not lead to a rise in sea levels, the melting of the West Antarctic ice sheets, which is exposed to the same temperature rises as the Arctic ice, will raise sea levels with 16 ft (5 meters) submerging large urban centres like London.