NOAA Affirms Predictions of Sea Ice Loss

September 7th, 2007 in Space & Earth / Environment
NOAA Affirms Predictions of Sea Ice Loss (AP)

A mother polar bear and her cub sleep near the ice outside Churchill, Canada Nov. 4, 2006. Computer predictions of a dramatic decline of sea ice in regions of the Arctic are confirmed by actual observations, according to scientists for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and could have profound effects on marine mammals dependent on the sea ice such as polar bears, now under consideration by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for "threatened" status under the Endangered Species Act. (AP Photo/CP/Jonathon Hayward)

(AP) -- An analysis of 20 years' worth of real-life observations supports recent U.N. computer predictions that by 2050, summer sea ice off Alaska's north coast will probably shrink to nearly half the area it covered in the 1980s, federal scientists say.

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