Ice cap may melt completely

2003-08-14 14:48

Oslo - The Arctic ice cap will melt completely within the next century if carbon dioxide emissions continue to heat the Earth's atmosphere at current rates, according to an international study published on Wednesday.

"Since 1978, the ice cap has shrunk by nearly three or four percent per decade. At the turn of the century there will be no more ice at the North Pole in summer," one of the study's authors, Ola Johannessen, said.

"If the CO2 emissions continue to accelerate, that may occur sooner, but if we cut them back the process will be slowed," said Johannessen, a professor at the Nansen research institute in Bergen, Norway.

Observations of the Arctic by satellite show that the polar ice cap has shrunk by one million square kilometres over the last 20 years and is only six million square kilometres in the summer. - Sapa-AFP

- SAPA