News from the polar regions in April 2008 included research into pollution’s role in Arctic climate change, documentation of a massive and rapid drainingof a glacial lake in Greenland, and surprising results from the summer Antarctic field season. Missed these stories the first time? Read on!

Indigenous people, who have the smallest ecological footprint on Earth, suffer most from both climate change and international mitigation measures. That’s the report from an April 3 United Nations University (UNU) meeting in Darwin, Australia. Negative impacts of climate change on indigenous populations worldwide include increase in diseases such as cholera, malaria, and dengue fever, disruption in subsistence agriculture and hunting and gathering livelihoods, and coastal and riverbank erosion in the Arctic (caused by stronger waves, thawing permafrost, and melting glaciers, and sea ice). Additionally, the indigenous people point to human rights violations, displacements, and conflicts due to seizure of ancestral lands and forests for renewable energy projects, carbon sinks, and biofuel plantations. In one specific case, indigenous people were forcibly removed from their land so that trees could be planted to offset carbon emissions due to air travel. According to A.H. Zaki, director of the UNU’s Institute of Advanced Studies:“There are at least 370 million indigenous people throughout the world living relatively neutral or even carbon negative life styles. While not a large number when compared to the world population of 6 billion, it does have a substantial impact in lowering emissions. Compare this to the impact of the United States, with a population of 300 million – only 4 percent of the world’s population – but responsible for about 25 percent of world greenhouse gas emissions.”

An interesting consideration: how our efforts to go “green” affect these populations.

Sea ice in the Arctic is melting – and faster than predicted. The extent of summer sea ice has decreased by almost 40 percent as compared to the 1979-2000 average. Ice is also thinning, with old, multiyear ice being replaced by thinner, annual ice. But why is this happening? Some 35 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) researchers are collaborating with government and university colleagues to study pollutants from industry, transportation, and biomass burning. The trace gases and airborne particles emitted from these processes form an “Arctic haze” each winter and spring – a suspect in the increased warming and melting. The Aerosol, Radiation, and Cloud Processes affecting Arctic Climate Change (ARCPAC) project will use almost 30 airborne sensors to monitor the atmosphere as sunlight warms the area and the haze forms.

In a related project, Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS), NASA researchers will use similar technology to investigate the chemistry of the Arctic’s lower atmosphere. Additionally, a German researcher from the Potsdam Research Unit of the Alfred-Wegner-Institute for Polar and Marine Research spent seven months on a drifting ice floe in the Arctic. During this time (winter in the Arctic), he gained observational data and used tethered balloons and balloon-borne sensors to gather data. Data from these and other projects will shed a clearer light on how pollution contributes to climate changes in the Arctic and will improve climate-change models.

Despite missing an Endangered Species Act deadline by more than three months, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has not issued a final decision about whether or not to list the polar bear as a threatened species. In an early April hearing on Capitol Hill, the National Wildlife Federation urged immediate action. The delay in a final decision has been suspected to be linked to the February sale of oil and gas leases in the Chukchi Sea, part of the polar bear’s natural habitat.

Ice shelves are showing the strain of climate change at both poles. Canadian researchers have discovered that the Ward Hunt ice shelf, the largest ice shelf in the Northern Hemisphere, has fractured into three pieces. The new, 18 kilometer-long network of cracks joins a large fracture discovered in 2002. First indication of the cracks came from Radarsat satellite images in February, and Canadian Rangers confirmed the findings in early April. These new fractures raise the concern that the remaining ice shelf will disintegrate during the next few years.

In Antarctica, the end of March brought the disintegration of a large part of the Wilkins Ice Shelf, the latest indication of the impact of climate change on Antarctica.

Researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the University of Washington have documented the complete draining of a 5.6 square kilometers (2.2 square miles) glacial lake that held 11.6-billion gallons of water – in a 24-hour period. The lake, located atop Greenland’s ice sheet and formed by summer surface melting, drained from the top of the Greenland ice sheet to its base. Most of the water drained in a 90-minute period, approximating Niagara Falls in speed. The pressure of the water from the lake had split the ice from top to bottom, allowing the water to drain to the bedrock beneath the ice sheet. The movement of the water to the base of the ice sheet provided more lubrication and doubled its speed. While this surface melt was significant for its first documentation of a glacial “plumbing” system and remarkable for its magnitude, researchers also found that surface melt does not play a significant role in the speed and rate of calving of the outlet glaciers, which extend to the ocean and have more immediate potential to cause sea level rise.

The head of China’s Antarctic expedition team announced that an expedition beginning in November will start to construct a new research station on Dome A, the highest point on the continent at 4,093 meters above sea level. From this station, researchers will attempt to sample ice cores dating from 1.2 million years ago, study geologic evolution, astronomy, and global climate change.

Researchers from the first Polarstern expedition deployed autonomous observing stations, either moored to the seafloor or drifting freely. These stations will collect data about the Southern Ocean and will be used to determine if this past summer’s colder temperatures and sea ice maximum, is part of a trend or just an anomaly. Satellite images from Antarctica show the largest summer sea-ice extent on record, which contrasts with the ever shrinking sea-ice of the Arctic.

Two female high-school graduates made news for building an autonomous, camera-equipped rover that successfully completed approximately 10 dives in the Southern Ocean during the 2008 Antarctic research season. The women first began work with graduate students in Dr. Gretchen Hofmann’s lab at the University of California, Santa Barbara after competing in remotely operated vehicle design competition.Know of another significant news story from April that you’d like to share? Reactions to another of the stories discussed here? Post a comment – we’d love to hear from you!