Is an Ice-Free Arctic Ocean a Possibility?

According to a report from Reuters News Service the North Atlantic current, which delivers warm water to the Arctic Ocean, is recording high temperatures at levels not seen in the last 2000 years. The finding is another signpost of global warming as the temperature change is now likely to result in ice-free seas around North Pole in summer over the next few decades.

Scientists studying the North Atlantic found that the ocean waters between Greenland and the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, known as the Fram Strait, averaged 6 degrees Celsius (42.80F) over the last several summers hastening the melting of Arctic sea ice.

"The temperature is unprecedented in the past 2,000 years," said lead author of the study, Robert Spielhagen of the Academy of Sciences, Humanities and Literature in Mainz, Germany.

Historic summer water temperatures were determined by reconstructing the composition of tiny organisms buried in sediments in the Fram Strait. The study revealed that temperatures ran at an average 41.3F from 1890-2007 which was higher than the average of 38.1F in the previous 1,900 years.

During the last twenty years the temperatures in the Fram have varied but the latest readings are clearly outside of the range set during the preceding 2000 years. Even changes in energy produced by the sun, which allowed the Vikings to build farms in Greenland circa the tenth century, did not heat the waters to the extent that they are registering now. The high temperature readings are another indication that global warming is the result of human activities

The authors of the study wrote that the warming temperatures "are presumably linked to the Arctic amplification of global warming" and that the warming "is most likely another key element in the transition to a future ice-free Arctic Ocean."

Ice levels on the Arctic Ocean recorded their lowest reading on record in 2007 which will probably lead to a self-reinforcing cycle of continuous warming. As the greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere increase from mankind's use of carbon-based fuels in power plants, factories and cars the situation in the Arctic is expected to worsen. The melting of reflective ice and snow in the Arctic region uncovers water or land mass which absorb the sun’s heat at a much higher level. This cycle is amplifying the warming trend in the Arctic as evidenced by temperatures which are rising at double the rate of the global average. For that reason, many scientists are forecasting that the Arctic Ocean will be free of ice during the summer season within the next few decades.