Polar bears, seals in jeopardy

Many Arctic animals, including polar bears and some seal species, could be extinct within 20 years because of the effects of global warming, a major conservation group said on Sunday.

Traditional ways of life for many indigenous people in the Arctic will also become unsustainable unless the world "takes drastic action to reduce climate change," according to the World Wide Fund for Nature.

"If we don't act immediately the Arctic will soon become unrecognisable" said Tonje Folkestad, a WWF climate change expert. "Polar bears will be consigned to history, something that our grandchildren can only read about in books."

By 2026, the earth could be an average 2� Celsius warmer than it was in 1750, according to research commissioned for WWF to be presented to a February 1-3 conference on climate change in Exeter, England.

"In the Arctic this could lead to a loss of summer sea ice, species and some types of tundra vegetation as well as to a fundamental change in the ways of life of Inuit and other arctic residents," WWF said in a statement.

The total area covered by summer sea ice in the Arctic is already decreasing by 9.2% a decade and "will disappear entirely by the end of the century" unless the situation changes, WWF said.

Food source in jeopardy
This would threaten the existence of polar bears and seals that live on the ice, which in turn would remove a major source of food for the indigenous communities who hunt them.

Forested areas will spread northward as those areas become warmer, threatening habitats for birds like ravens, snow buntings, falcons, loons, sandpipers and terns.

"Migratory birds will lose a vital breeding ground in the Arctic, affecting biodiversity around the globe," WWF said.

Indigenous peoples such as the Eskimos in North America and Saami in Scandinavia could lose their traditional livelihoods, and their communities will be threatened by the thinning sea ice, melting glaciers and thawing permafrost.

WWF said it was calling on participants at the Exeter conference to send a clear message to governments of the Group of Eight nations, meeting in Britain later this year.

Must reduce climate change
"If we are to ensure that unique ecosystems like the Arctic are not lost, the G-8 meeting must take drastic action to reduce climate change," said Catarina Cardoso, a WWF expert on sustainable energy, adding that this must include a commitment to keeping global average temperatures down.

Findings released in November 2004 by the Arctic Council - which comprises Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States - showed that the annual average amount of sea ice in the Arctic has decreased about 8% in 30 years.

In the past 50 years, average yearly temperatures in Alaska and Siberia have increased by about 2� Celsius to minus 15� C.

The United States is the only country in the Arctic region that has not signed the Kyoto Protocol. Russia ratified the UN-sponsored accord to combat global warming in November 2004.