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Add an EventMelting ice opens Northwest Passage
The McClure Strait in the Canadian Arctic has been fully open since early August [ESA]
The Northwest Passage, the previously impassable shortcut between Europe and Asia in the Canadian Arctic, has now opened due to the shrinking of Arctic sea ice.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has said that sea ice has shrunk in the Arctic to its lowest level since satellite measurements began 30 years ago.
Leif Toudal Pedersen of the Danish National Space Centre said: "We have seen the ice-covered area drop to just around three million square kilometres, which is about one million square kilometres less than the previous minima of 2005 and 2006."
"There has been a reduction of the ice cover over the last 10 years of about 100,000 square km per year on average, so a drop of one million square km in just one year is extreme."
A shipping route through the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic is viewed as a cheaper option to the Panama Canal for many shippers.
The most direct route of the Northwest Passage across northern Canada is now "fully navigable", while the so-called Northeast Passage along the Siberian coast "remains only partially blocked," ESA said.
While the Northeast Passage remained partially blocked, it may open sooner than expected, Pedersen said.
Sensitive region
Scientists working with the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have warned that the Arctic is one of the most vulnerable areas for global warming, and some have predicted that the Arctic will be ice free by 2040.
Most experts say global warming is happening about twice as fast in the Arctic as elsewhere on the planet
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Historically, the Northwest Passage linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans has been ice-bound through the year.
But the agency says ice cover has been steadily shrinking, and this summer's reduction has made the route navigable.
The findings, based on satellite images, raised concerns about the speed of global warming.
'Extreme'
The Northwest Passage is one of the most fabled sea routes in the world - a short cut from Europe to Asia through the Canadian Arctic.
Recent years have seen a marked shrinkage in its ice cover, but this year it was extreme, Esa says.
It says this made the passage "fully navigable" for the first time since monitoring began in 1978.
"We have seen the ice-covered area drop to just around 3m sq km (1.2m sq miles)," Leif Toudal Pedersen of the Danish National Space Centre said.
He said it was "about 1m sq km (386,000 sq miles) less than the previous minima of 2005 and 2006".
"There has been a reduction of the ice cover over the last 10 years of about 100, 000 sq km (38,600 sq miles) per year on average, so a drop of 1m sq km (386,000 sq miles) in just one year is extreme," Mr Pedersen said.
Read More
International aid agencies are calling for more help as floods continues to devastate large swaths of Africa.
Dozens have died and an estimated one million people affected by the prolonged rains.
In the east of the continent, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Uganda are the worst hit countries, with at least 87 people dead.
Sudan, Kenya and Rwanda have also been affected. After days of torrential rain, tributaries that flow into the Nile have burst their banks, flooding villages in Uganda's Lira district.
The heaviest rainfall in 35 years has displaced at least 150,000 people in eastern Uganda, and, according to authorities, the rain has been "worsening by the hour".
Crops destroyed
Rising flood waters have resulted in as many as 400,000 people losing their livelihoods due to crops being destroyed, Musa Ecweri, the state minister for relief and disaster preparedness, said.
Nine peope died after being washed away by floodwater or struck by lightning during violent storms. Ecweru said the death toll was expected to rise, with rain still falling across large areas of the region. Aid organisations have stepped up efforts to get food and clean water to villagers. But landslides triggered by additional rainfall have washed away roads and aid access is currently limited, officials said
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