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The Disappearing Poles

The Arctic region is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Each year the summer sea ice surrounding the North Pole has shrunk by nearly eight per cent per decade.

Satellite images clearly show the area of whiteness being replaced by dark ocean is expanding year upon year, and this is occurring at such an alarming rate scientists have predicted that the North Pole will be open sea by 2040 and by the end of this century the Arctic summer will be completely ice free. Planet Earth will be left with just one polar ice cap, Antarctica.

We are likely to see conflicts over the vast new oil and gas reserves that will become accessible (a third of the world’s undiscovered oil reserves are expected to be found in the Arctic region), as well as the opening of new sea routes for international trade.