Record Arctic Ice Melt Threatens Global Security (Stephen Leahy)

Created by : Francis Goodwin View profile

This data visualisation from the Aqua satellite show the maximum sea ice extent for 2008-09. Credit:NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio

Sept. 15, 2011 (Inter Press Service) -- All the analysis and commentary about safety and security on the tenth anniversary of 9/11 ignored by far the biggest ongoing threat to global security: climate change.

Just days before Sunday's commemoration of the attacks, German scientists pointed to yet another smoking gun of climate change: the Arctic sea ice reached a new historic minimum ice extent.

The rapidity with which the planet is losing its northern ice cap continues to astonish experts. The defrosting northern pole is one of the prime drivers of Earth's climate system and is changing global weather patterns in unpredictable ways.

The Arctic ice melt is also accelerating the rate of climate change beyond what humanity is doing with every barrel of oil, tonne of coal or cubic meter of gas burned.