¶ … Arctic Melt Unnerves the Experts" by Andrew C. Revkin, printed in the New York Times on October 2, 2007. Its focus lies on the Arctic ice cap -- particularly, on the rapidly decreasing amount of floating ice there. It reports that during the summer of 2007, the amount of floating ice melted to "an extent unparalleled in a century or more," and that upon discovering this information, scientists were "unnerved." The article cites a study that found that during that summer, ice had not only melted but moved -- out of the Arctic basin and past Greenland. It reports that the rate at which the ice melted was far more than any scientist or report had previously speculated, but that there exists between scientists disagreement about the true cause for this event. Still, the article says, many of those scientists believe that the Arctic "is heading toward a new, more watery state, and that human-caused global warming is playing a significant role." It goes on to say that experts have so far not been able to locate records from Russia, Alaska, or elsewhere that point to a decrease in melt at such a high rate as that of the summer of 2007, and that scientists are becoming increasingly convinced that the Arctic's changing climate is directly related to human influence.
The focus of the article shifts to describe how the situation is beneficial to shipping, fishing and oil exploration, but how it is detrimental to the fate of polar bears. It lists a number of scientists' views on the potential for the ice melt to be reversed; all of them say they believe there is essentially no chance of that happening. It then lists a number of factors that may have also influenced the ice melt: heat-trapping clouds, the "ocean-heating influence of unusually sunny skies in June and July," warm winds, and a decrease of thick ice, which can endure months of higher temperatures and sunshine. What was left was thin ice, which in turn absorbed the solar energy that thick ice normally would, but melted faster.
The article concludes with a number of quotes...
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