Arctic will have first ice-free summer in 2015: Researcher

WINNIPEG - The ice that has covered the Arctic basin for a million years will be gone in little more than six years because of global warming, a University of Manitoba geoscientist said.

And David Barber said that once the sea ice is gone, more humans will be attracted to the Arctic, bringing with them even more ill effects.

"We'll always have ice in the winter time in the Arctic, but it will always be first-year ice," Barber said on Friday.

He said he estimates the Arctic sea should see its first ice-free summer around 2015.

"That has got industry very interested in the Arctic," he said. "That will put more pressure there.

"The change is happening so quickly."

Barber, who will be officially presenting his preliminary findings at the International Arctic Change 2008 conference in Quebec City next week, was the scientist in charge of the Circumpolar Flaw Lead System Study (CFL), a $40-million Arctic research project.

Almost 300 scientists from 15 countries took part in the nine-month project, based on the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Amundsen.

The conference, which runs all next week, will see more than 800 Arctic researchers from around the world convene to discuss the changes in the Arctic and what countries can do about the challenges and opportunities due to climate change there.