Melting ice in Arctic have been the hot news lately. Today there was another news about a 20 sq km (eight sq miles) of ice from the Ward Hunt shelf that split away from Ellesmere Island. This split is thought to be the biggest piece of ice shed by one of Canada’s six ice shelves since 60 sq km of the nearby Ayles Ice Shelf broke away in 2005. In an article in the New York Times in late July 2008 by an author promoting a forthcoming book about “global warming” calls the Greenland ice-sheet “one of ‘global warming’s’ most disturbing threats”. The article says: “The vast expanses of glaciers – massed, on average, 1.6 miles deep – contain enough water to raise sea levels worldwide by 23 feet (link). It is also told that the ice roads that were open 245 days a year have been restricted to only 100 days a year in Alaska.

That was North Pole; what about the third pole, the top of the world? Scientists and climbers are also witnessing the rapid melting of snow cover exposing bare rock on the climbing route.

“Climbing is becoming more dangerous, and I think we will start to see more injuries and even fatalities because of the difficult terrain,” said Dawa Steven Sherpa, team leader of Eco-Everest Expedition 2008, who successfully ascended Everest for the second time this May.

According to him, there was only 50 meters of rock to climb on the famous Hillary Step last year. This year, there was about 150 meters of rock. “Wearing crampons (metal shoes made for climbing in snow and ice) and standing on the bare rock at over 8,600 meters was a very scary experience,” said Sherpa. “At one point I slipped and if I hadn’t been clipped in I would have fallen 2,000 meters to Camp Two. (kantipur)

Some people claim that the Nature has its own way of doing things and we have done nothing much to upset it. Most others however disagree. Melting of Arctic ice seems way faster than some computer models predict.

Do we need to do more to offset this? Are we in the right direction?