The impacts of globalwarming are already occurring in the Arctic with temperatures rising twice as fast as they are elsewhere in the world. This warming trend could greatly affect sea level rise, ocean circulation systems and salinity, and change marine habitats threatening many species with extinction.

Scientist’s project that melting glaciers and land based arctic ice could raise sea level by as much as 3 feet by 2100, threatening low-lying coastal areas from the Gulf of Mexico and Florida to Bangladesh. Melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet can cause sea level to rise by as much as 23 feet. There are signs that this process has begun, although total melting is likely to take up to 1,000 years.

Polar bears could face extinction this century if the Arctic continues to melt at its present rate. The sea ice around the North Pole on which bears depend for hunting is shrinking rapidly. It could disappear during the summer months by the end of the century, impacting both wildlife and the local communities that depend upon them for subsistence, according to the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment commissioned by the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental body involving eight nations and six indigenous people’s organizations.

Melting arctic ice also threatens to disrupt the great ocean conveyor (Thermohaline Circulation System) which carries tremendous amounts of heat northward and enables the Earth to have temperatures suitable for human life over most of its surface. A recently released scientific study by Michael Schlesinger, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Illinois, projects that absent any climate change policy, there is a 45% probability that the ocean conveyor will shut down this century and a 70% chance it will shut down over the next 200 years.

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