Polar ice cap melting away in 2008 ?

How low will they go? Putting a date on the melting of the Arctic ice cap has been a popular prediction game among scientists of late; in recent months, we've heard estimates ranging from 2030 to as early as 2013.



The latest salvo comes courtesy of Xinhua, which reports that Olav Orheim, the head of the Norwegian International Polar Year Secretariat, is placing his money on this summer. Noting that its ice sheet had reached a historical low of 3m sq. km last summer - it covered around 7.5m sq. km as recently as 2000 - Orheim told Xinhua that "if Norway's average temperature this year equals that in 2007, the ice cap in the Arctic will all melt away." Barring this disaster, Orheim predicted that excess carbon dioxide emissions and higher average temperatures would unpredictably alter the region's fragile ecosystems. On a separate note, he said that Asia would likely be hardest hit by rising sea levels, estimating that a one meter rise would affect "nearly 100 million people on an area of 800,000 square km in Asia and direct economic loss will amount to 400 billion U.S. dollars."



Shrinking ice cap in the Arctic Ocean even produced a new sea route from the Bering Strait to Oslo last summer, said Orheim. Maritime enterprises in some industrial nations such as the UnitedStates and Britain have started mulling on how to use it to cut cost over the past six months, he added.

Olav Orheim

Dr. Olav Orheim is a distinguished glaciologist, climatologist and polar expert who has spent more than thirty years studying the effects of global warming. Dr. Orheim, was Head of Research at the Norwegian Polar Institute's (NPI) Antarctic Section from 1972 to 1993, before becoming the NPI's Managing Director. Alongside his work with the NPI he was a Professor at the University of Bergen's Department of Geology from 1989-2005, where he specialised in glaciology. He is currently Executive Secretary of the Norwegian International Polar Year.

A renowned authority on climate change and its effects on the planet's poles, Dr Orheim is currently Senior Adviser to the Norwegian Ministry of Environment.

Eat whale and save the world

Eating whale meat is far better for the climate than eating other types of meat. That’s the conclusion of a new, groundbreaking study.



“People can eat whale meat with a good conscience,” says Rune Frovik of the High North Alliance, which has conducted the study.

Norway and Japan, the two main whaling nations, are seeking new arguments to promote whale meat after years of condemnation from anti-whaling nations for breaking with a 1986 moratorium on all hunts meant to save many whale species from extinction.

The study compared the carbon foot print of Norwegian minke whale meat and farm raised meat. It found that the carbon foot print of beef was eight times higher than that of whale meat. “Put simply, one meal of beef emits the same amount of greenhouse gases as eight meals of whale meat,” says Frovik.

When expressing greenhouse gas emissions as CO2 equivalents, whale meat ends up with 1.9 kg per CO2 equivalents while the corresponding values are 17.4 for lamb, 15.8 for beef, 6.4 for pork and 4.6 for chicken.

The CO2 equivalents for other types of meat were done through other studies.

Greenpeace said the threat of extinction was more important.

"The survival of a species is more important than lower greenhouse gas emissions from eating it," said Truls Gulowsen of Greenpeace. "Almost every food is more climate friendly than meat.
Most fish and seafood has similarly low emissions."

The High North Alliance has for years argued that abundant whale stocks make whale meat a sustainable and ecological sound option. International scientists estimate that there are more than 100,000 minke whales in the areas where the Norwegian commercial whale hunt takes place.

“Now it is also confirmed that whale meat is low carbon and good for the climate,” Frovik says.

A transfer to green taxes in which the real costs associated with climate change emissions are incorporated in the real consumer prices may strengthen the economic competition of low-carbon items.

“With increasing environmental awareness, coupled with abundant whale stocks, the future for whaling looks bright,” he says.

Further information:
Study on the carbon foot print of whale meat