alienation news

FLASHBACK: Arctic ice cap gives way to lake a mile across

The North Pole is melting for the first time in 55 million years. Researchers have found that the icecap at the top of the world has turned into a mile-wide patch of open ocean.
The melting of the pole last happened on such a scale when the Earth was going through a period of rapid warming. This year's meltdown has been linked to the greenhouse effect, in which gases released by burning fossil fuels are trapping ever more heat in the atmosphere and warming the Earth.
The melting was discovered by James McCarthy, an oceanographer and member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC, which is sponsored by the United Nations to advise governments on global warming. It coincides with official confirmation that the icecap covering Greenland is also disappearing.
Earlier research conducted by Mr. McCarthy has shown that the average summer thickness of ice at the North Pole was about three metres.
This year, however, he was able to take a ship directly to the pole and then had to float over it because there was no ice to stand on.