-Caveat Lector-
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Date sent: Mon, 28 May 2001 18:06:13 -0700
From: Jean Jensen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [HollowPlanets] Skiing across the North Pole
To: "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Send reply to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Rense.com
Explorer Says Arctic Ice
Thinning Noticeably
By David Ljunggren
5-28-1
OTTAWA (Reuters) - The ice sheets covering the Arctic seas
have thinned noticeably over the last seven years, most likely
as a result of global warming, said a Norwegian explorer who
has just skied alone across the top of the world.
Boerge Ousland, speaking after an 82-day trip in which he
traveled 1,300 miles from the northern tip of Russia to the
North Pole and then down to Canada, said on Sunday he had
seen other evidence which hinted strongly at the effects of
climate change.
The 38-year-old explorer, holder of four long-distance polar
skiing records, measured the ice thickness as part of a study
by the Norwegian Polar Institute. He made similar
measurements on a trek from Russia to the North Pole in 1994.
``The ice toward the North Pole seems to be much thinner
than normal and this made it much more broken so that the
conditions were much more difficult than they had been in
1994 ... at around 87 degrees North it was up to a meter
thinner,'' Ousland said.
``I think personally that things are happening with (global)
warming ... that the ice is getting thinner and there is
less ice,''
he told reporters during his first meeting with the
media since
reaching Ward Hunt Island in Canada's Arctic on Wednesday.
Officials with the expedition said the ice that Ousland had
measured during the trip ranged from two feet to six
feet in
depth.
Many scientists believe that increasing emissions of
greenhouse gases -- caused by burning fossil fuels -- are
contributing significantly to global warming.
Earlier studies showed the Arctic sea ice had thinned
over the
last 30 years or so to six feet from 10 feet and had
shrunk by
around six percent since 1975.
Ousland said he had noticed other distinct changes in the
Arctic since 1994, including a much greater number of polar
bears closer to the North Pole.
POLAR BEARS PROLIFERATING
``I saw between 50 and 60 polar bear tracks on the Russian
side. In 1994 I saw two tracks, so that's a big, big
change,'' he
said. One explanation could be that thinning ice meant the
bears needed to travel further to hunt seals, he added.
At one point the explorer was almost ambushed by a female
polar bear and her two cubs but managed to scare them off
with a warning shot from his revolver.
Ousland said he had also been startled to see large
pieces of
driftwood from Siberia very close to the North Pole, another
possible indicator that the ice was much thinner than
usual.
``I saw big logs standing straight up, like poles, with
roots and
everything. I also saw sand from riverbeds on (pieces
of) ice
which probably came from the coast of Russia,'' he said.
In 1990, Ousland and a colleague were the first people
to ski
unaided to the North Pole and in 1994 he repeated the
feat by
himself. In 1996 he became the first person to ski solo
to the
South Pole and a year later he became the first to cross the
Antarctic continent unaided and alone.
But the goal of his latest trip -- to become the first
man to ski
across the Arctic unaided -- died on the third day when his
sledge broke and a new one had to be airlifted to him.
``This was a big, big mental stress and for me it was
actually a
victory to actually keep on going,'' he said.
Ousland lost 37 pounds during his trek despite a diet of 7,000
calories a day and is still in pain from ``pretty bad''
frostbite in
both thighs. During his trek he averaged about 10 hours of
skiing a day, dragging a sled which weighed 360 pounds at
the outset.
Ousland said he had been shocked by the death of Japanese
Polar explorer Hyoichi Kohno, who drowned after plunging
through thin ice in the Canadian Arctic earlier this
month.
``It was a big stress for me because I was thinking
about all the
times I have had close calls on thin ice and how thin
the line is
between life and death when you are going on solo
expeditions out there,'' said Ousland, who at one point was
just 1.2 miles from where Kohno died.
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