Environment

Arctic Melt Could Allow Invasive Species to Arrive

Scientists are sounding the alarm over the threat of invasive species reaching the Arctic due to the recent record melt of the polar ice cap.

Channels of open water now appear nearly each summer across Arctic Canada and north of Alaska, as well as along the coasts of Scandinavia and Russia.

Climate scientists predict the sea ice around the North Pole will disappear entirely each summer later in the 21st century.

Biologists from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, writing in the journal Nature Climate Change, say that shipping through the newly opened passages could inadvertently bring in organisms on the hulls and in the ballast water of vessels.

The first commercial cargo to pass through the newly opened Northwest Passage was a load of coal during September 2013.

There has also been a rush to find the estimated 13 percent of the world’s untapped oil that lies beneath the Arctic.

Maritime excursions for tourists into the newly opened Arctic are also increasing.

“If unchecked, these activities will vastly alter the exchange of invasive species, especially across the Arctic, north Atlantic and north Pacific oceans,” said lead author Whitman Miller.

Oil tanker heading toward Valdez, Alaska. Oil discoveries in the melting Arctic Ocean could allow such ships to bring invasive species into the formerly isolated waters.

Global warming damages corals vital to small islands: UN

Global warming is causing trillions of dollars of damage to coral reefs, aggravating risks to tropical small island states threatened by rising sea levels, a U.N. report said on Thursday.

The rise in sea levels off some islands in the Western Pacific was four times the global average, with gains of 1.2 cms (0.5 inch) a year from 1993 to 2012, due to shifts in winds and currents, said the United Nations' Environment Programme (UNEP).

The study, released to mark the U.N.'s World Environment Day on June 5, said a warming of waters from the Indian Ocean to the Caribbean was damaging reefs by killing the tiny animals that form corals with their stony skeletons.

"These 52 nations, home to over 62 million people, emit less than one per cent of global greenhouse gases, yet they suffer disproportionately from the climate change that global emissions cause," said Achim Steiner, head of UNEP.

"Some islands could become uninhabitable and others are faced with the potential loss of their entire territories," the study said.

The loss of corals is wiping trillions of dollars a year off services provided by nature, usually counted as free. Corals are nurseries for many types of fish, they help to protect coasts from storms and tsunamis and also attract tourists.