Many scientists see no escape for dramatic Arctic thaw
October 25, 2005
By Andrew C. Revkin
New York Times

In 1969, Roy Koerner, a Canadian government glaciologist, was one of
four men (and 36 dogs) who completed the first surface crossing of the
Arctic Ocean, from Alaska through the North Pole to Norway.

Today, he said, such a trek would be impossible: There is just not
enough ice. In September, the area covered by sea ice reached a record
low. "I recently reviewed a proposal by one guy to go across by kayak,"
Koerner said.

Many scientists say it has taken a long time for them to accept that
global warming, partly the result of carbon dioxide and other
heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, could shrink the Arctic's summer
cloak of ice.

But many of those same scientists have concluded that the momentum
behind human-caused warming, combined with the region's tendency to
amplify change, has put the familiar Arctic past the point of no
return.

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