Dire warning for North Pole ice sheet

THE ice sheet covering the North Pole and Arctic Ocean could recede and disappear completely in the summer months by 2040, researchers said today.

If greenhouse gas emissions continued at the current rate, the Arctic's future ice cover would have periods of relative stability followed by abrupt retreat, said a team of scientists of the National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and Canada's McGill University.

Only a small portion of the permanent ice pack would cling in the summer season around the northern coastline of Greenland and Canada, the researchers said in the Geophysical Research Letters magazine.

"We have already witnessed major losses in sea ice, but our research suggests that the decrease over the next few decades could be far more dramatic than anything that has happened so far," said NCAR scientist and lead author of the study Marika Holland.

The melting ice pack would have a devastating effect on global warming, warned the scientists.

"Open water absorbs more sunlight than does ice, meaning that the growing regions of ice-free water will accelerate the warming trend," they said.

The loss of the ice pack in the summer would also hold dire consequences for the environmental balance of the polar region and for the survival of some species like the polar bear, who need the ice pack for hunting.