Aug. 31, 2007 — The Svalbard archipelago near the North Pole is already seeing the dramatic effects of global warming: the mercury is rising twice as fast as elsewhere on the planet, posing a serious threat to the ecosystem.
The Arctic sea ice has never been as small as it is now. This year, it shrank to less than 1.93 million square miles — a grim record for the planet.
"And there is still a month of melting in September," says an alarmed Nalan Koc, head of the Norwegian Polar Institute's polar climate program.
In Svalbard, a Norwegian territory twice the size of Belgium which is home to the northernmost permanent population in the world, the effects of climate change can be seen with the naked eye.
For the past two years, the fjords on the west coast have been totally ice-free, even in winter.
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In Longyearbyen, the capital, the lack of ice means residents can no longer race their snowscooters on Isfjorden (Ice Fjord), which may have to be renamed one day.
Meanwhile the Esmark glacier, a mass of white ice jetting into Isfjorden, has shrunk by 2.17 miles since 1966 though researchers are unable to say whether the change is due to global warming or the glacier's normal cycle.
Despite its remote location in the far north, Svalbard, which was located near the equator 250 million years ago, is habitable today because of the Gulf Stream which raises the region's temperature by 10 degrees Celsius.
But the temperature could soon get too warm.
