Be afraid, very afraid

Photograph: Paul Souders/Corbis

Scientists have reported that Arctic sea ice shrunk a dramatic 18% this year ― a record low. Since 1979 a significant and worrying decrease in thickness has also occurred. Environmental groups around the world responded with a call for immediate action. 

In a news story in today's Guardian, writer John Vidal quotes author and environmental campaigner Bill McKibben:

"Our response [so far] has not been alarm, or panic, or a sense of emergency. It has been: 'Let's go up there and drillfor oil'. There is no more perfect indictment of our failure to get to grips with the greatest problem we've ever faced."  

Even more damning, the news of the dramatic and unprecedented melting of our ice caps is not on Page One of any political agenda, even in this election year. 

To comprehend that this is happening now, not decades from now, is to be aware of the full scope of environmental events to come. What we have experienced in terms of climate change is only a preface.

Vidal goes on to report: 

"Other leading ice scientists this week predicted the complete collapse of sea ice in the Arctic within four years. "The final collapse ... is now happening and will probably be complete by 2015/16," said Prof Peter Wadhams of Cambridge University.

Read the full Guardian story here.

Also today ―  McKibben and Greenpeace International Executive Director Kumi Naidoo issued a call for a coordinated international response to the Polar crisis.  

Get involved and join Greenpeace's Save the Arctic campaign. Sign the petition to declare the Arctic as a global sanctuary.