Arctic A Bellwhether For Global Warming

Apr. 20 - KGO (KGO) -- Should the polar bear be placed on the endangered species list? Last week, half a million Americans told the Department of the Interior that they want to see the Arctic giants protected. At issue is whether the carnivores can adapt to the changing climate. Today, we met with a panel of experts in San Francisco.

For those who cannot visit the Arctic to see for themselves, this session at a meeting of the American Association of Geographers in San Francisco, may have been the next best thing. As one man told us, "We are the canary in the coalmine. There's no question about it."

A canary with plenty more than polar bears at stake. Those photogenic creatures may get much of the attention, but there is more to the north. It's one reason the federal government will spend $400 million dollars this year to study global warming's effects in the Arctic, and the Arctic's effects on us.

Buck Sharpton, University of Alaska: "This about the earth. We are sitting at a tipping point. Right now, the whole ecosystem, the global ecosystem is going to be impacted if we don't begin to think of ways we can modify our behavior patterns."

Melting ice packs are only the beginning. How will increasing fresh water affect sea life? As a larger ocean surface absorbs more heat from the sun, how will it affect temperatures and currents? There are more questions from increased gasses from disappearing lakes and melting permafrost.

The federal government plans to increase instrumental monitoring to find out.

Mead Treadwell, Chair, U.S. Arctic Research Comm.: "We need accounting systems that measure human emissions and we also need to know what nature's emissions are."

Now oil, as much as one fourth of the world's remaining fossil fuels, are waiting to be discovered in the Arctic. And now that the ice is disappearing. that is possible. So is mapping of the continental shelves. Some nations are expanding their claims. Russia now believes it has a right to 45 percent of the Arctic Sea up to the North Pole.

Who will claim rights to a new northwest passage?

Mead Treadwell: "Think of the security implications of an accessible Arctic Ocean."

So, polar bears are cute, but only the tip to an increasingly complex and diminishing iceberg.

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