Polar Ice Retreat Spells Warning for East Anglia Flooding

The Green Party in Eastern Region is warning that the recently announced record retreat of the polar sea ice points towards future sea flooding of communities and farmland along the East Anglian coast.

Although the sea ice melting does not in itself add to sea level rise, it is a strong indicator that the arctic is warming and evidence from land based glaciers in Iceland, Greenland and elsewhere shows melting and accelerated movement of glaciers. The melting of the land based glaciers, if it continues, could lead to a serious threat of coastal flooding in East Anglia, where large areas lie at, or even below sea level. This threat is added to by thermal expansion of the ocean as it heats up in response to global warming.

The northern polar sea ice has this month reached its lowest ever recorded extent, not just beating, but smashing by over 20% the previous low point reached in September 2005. Sea ice covered 4.1 million square kilometers (1.6 million square miles) on Sept. 16, the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado reported in a statement on its web site, using a five-day rolling average. That's 1.2 million square kilometers less ice than the previous record - or an area roughly the size of Texas and California combined.(Note: the measured extent of the ice depends on the systems used to measure it and different authorities may quote different figures, but all agree that its a new record and an unprecedented loss rate).

The dramatic retreat of the seasonal ice, and the decay of long established non seasonal ice is leading scientists to warn that an ice free north pole in summer may come a lot sooner than earlier predictions of the second half of the century.

Cllr. James Abbott, Green Party Eastern Region and National Climate Change Spokesperson said:

"The Green Party is today once again warning that the retreat of the northern polar ice is further evidence of climate change, and that time may be running out to avert even more significant impacts unless carbon dioxide emissions are substantially reduced.

As the polar ice retreats, it will trigger even faster warming in high latitudes as highly reflective ice is replaced by darker heat absorbing surfaces, especially the ocean. This "positive feedback" effect has long been predicted by climate scientists.

Although it may seem remote from us here in East Anglia, what happens at the top of the world could have a direct and dramatic impact on our region. Scientists are already predicting further sea level rise this century, which in many places will mean expensive higher coastal defences are needed or land being abandoned to the sea. Faster land based arctic ice melt will speed up that process and make the sea level rise worse, also threatening more extreme tidal surges.

Given this scenario, it beggars belief that UK carbon dioxide emissions continue to rise under Labour and that the Government both refuses to take urgent action to move to a low carbon economy and supports more motorway and airport building."