Meltdown in the Arctic is speeding up

Scientists warn that the North Pole could be free of ice in just five years' time instead of 60 Ice at the North Pole melted at an unprecedented rate last week, with leading scientists warning that the Arctic could be ice-free in summer by 2013. Satellite images show that ice caps started to disintegrate dramatically several days ago as storms over Alaska's Beaufort Sea began sucking streams of warm air into the Arctic. As a result, scientists say that the disappearance of sea ice at the North Pole could exceed last year's record loss. More than a million square kilometres melted over the summer of 2007 as global warming tightened its grip on the Arctic. But such destruction could now be matched, or even topped, this year. 'It is a neck-and-neck race between 2007 and this year over the issue of ice loss,' said Mark Serreze,... [read full story]