Does the Arctic melt matter?

Mike Childs

12 September 2011

Just about every environmentalist I know hears the news of the melting ice in the Arctic and reacts with a sense of horror. But in the pub the questions are: does it really matter? So what if the polar bear goes extinct? Aren't there bigger issues to worry about, like destruction of tropical rainforest and the acidification of the oceans?

There are three reasons why I think the melting of the Arctic matters:

1. It is a visible and measurable sign that climate change is happening. Sea ice levels are the lowest for probably 8,000 years. If politicians and some of the media aren't particularly interested in reading the thousands of pages of scientific research that says global climate change is happening then hopefully they will spare the time to look at the photographs and maps. If they do then perhaps they will stop the dithering and doubting and get on with the job of cutting emissions, and cutting them fast.

2. Arctic ice plays a very useful role in reflecting some of the sun's energy back to space (the so-called albedo effect). When the ice goes, more of the sun's energy is absorbed by the darker coloured sea. This means that as the ice goes the climate change problems get bigger and therefore more difficult to solve.

3. In response to the melting of the Arctic the big energy companies are drawing up plans to extract the oil and gas that was previously untouchable. To any sane person this surely has to be a perfect example of putting more fuel on the fire. But to these people it is simply a route to more money and bigger profits.

Does it matter if the polar bear goes extinct? Scientifically the answer is that it is not necessarily more of a problem than one of the other 9 billion species on the planet going extinct. But the complex web of life is what makes the Earth habitable. We mess with this at our peril - and this is exactly why we should be concerned about the fate of the polar bear as well as tropical deforestation, ocean acidification and the other drivers of biodiversity loss.