A U.S. ecology professor says arctic nations have the wealth and scientific understanding to alter the course of global climate change. "Nations that govern arctic lands account for about 40 percent of global CO2 emissions and, therefore, have a substantial capacity to reduce the rates of Arctic change," said F.S. "Terry" Chapin III of the Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks.
"A lot of the recommendations for policy change deal with enhancing the capacity of northern regions to be flexible and adaptable to cope with changes, some of which we can predict, and others of which will be surprises," Chapin added.
He said an increasingly ice-free Arctic Ocean could be zoned to include marine protected areas, designated shipping lanes, and fishing areas co-managed by local residents and government managers.
"There is a long, perhaps 50-year, time lag between implementation of reduced greenhouse gas emissions and a large change in greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, so reducing greenhouse gas emissions is important, but insufficient. We will also need to deal with the consequences of the warming that is already under way," Chapin said.
The recommendations appear in the journal Ambio.
Source: United Press International
