Sailing over the North Pole in a couple of years...?

[old_hand]

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August 2005 . . . . compared to . . . . August 2006

Schwindsüchtige Arktis - Die Zeit

Greenland ice sheet melting faster: study - Reuters

Satellite views show big gaps in Arctic ice - MSNBC.com

Frightening idea. Humans (people) will try to adapt and survive such BIG changes, but what about the animals?

Such as the polar bears who are having an ever decreasing territory, ever more trouble to survive and with some of them actually drowning...

The Poles - Polar bear attacks: A good reason to choose Antarctica instead of the Arctic

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[et]

Yeah, it's really disturbing to see the british isles appearing in the Arctic ice cap in the august 2006 image.

When it comes to the polar bears, I'm pretty sure a few of them have drowned in the past aswell.

[old_hand]

Yeah, it's really disturbing to see the british isles appearing in the Arctic ice cap in the august 2006 image.

My fault, I guess. I assumed people would click one or two of the links.

This is what it says below the picture in the MSNBC article:

Leif Toudal Pedersen / ESA

A color-coded image from the EOS Aqua satellite shows ice thickness in the Arctic. Red and pink indicate 100 percent ice concentration. Yellow, orange and green indicate fissures and openings in the ice. The outline of the British Isles is superimposed over the picture to provide a sense of scale.

With this being the explanation given by Die Zeit:

Eiskalter Schrecken: Die linke Satellitenaufnahme zeigt die Eiskonzentration um den Nordpol (schwarzes Loch) am 24. August 2005. Pinke Flächen sind vollständig vom Eis bedeckt. Rechts daneben der Zustand der Arktis am 23. August 2006. Insbesondere im Bild rechts und unten kann man die massiven Verluste in der Eisdecke erkennen, die binnen eines einzigen Jahres erfolgten.

©Polar View/Leif Toudal Pedersen

The British Isles are in the image to give a better idea of the scale of this development; not everyone has a fairly good idea of the size of it all. Hence the British Isles-drawing.

You knew, didn't you? You have a dislike for the Brits by any chance? Would you have preferred to see Norway there instead? Well, just as long as you don't ask for China...