WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 15) – A Congressional briefing by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) revealed data that climate scientists have uncovered since the release of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) that illustrates arctic climate warming is occurring at an astounding rate. 
 
Dr. Robert Corell, Chair of ACIA and Senior Policy Fellow at the American Meteorological Society, presented recent data indicating that climate change in the Arctic is occurring more rapidly than previously thought. Dr. Corell said, "Climate change is occurring in the Arctic now, and has been for the last 30 years." Annual average arctic temperatures have increased at twice the rate of global temperatures over the past several decades, with some regions increasing by five to ten times the global average. The latest observations show Alaska's 2004 June-July-August mean temperature to be nearly 5 °F (2.8 °C) above the 1971-2000 historic mean, and permafrost temperature increasing enough to cause it to start melting. Dr. Corell said the Greenland ice sheet is melting more rapidly than thought even five years ago, and that the climate models indicate that warming over Greenland is likely to be up to three times the global average, with warming projected to be in the range of 5 to 11 °F (3 to 6 °C). This temperature increase will likely lead to sea-level rise on the high end of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates, 90 cm (3 ft) during this century.  

Dr. Pål Prestrud, Vice-Chair of ACIA and Director of the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research (CICERO) in Oslo, Norway, said ACIA has received much more political and media attention than expected because the message of ACIA is clear, easy to communicate, and built on hard scientific facts. He explained that ACIA was both a political and scientific process, and detailed the arduous task of coming to agreement on the policy document in the face of US concerns. Regarding the Reykjavik Declaration--the ACIA policy document accepted at the Fourth Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting, November 24, 2004--Dr. Prestrud said, "It is the best policy document we could have expected when we started; even with the international political situation on climate change issues.....we came a good step further ahead." Dr. Prestrud also stated that "timely, measured and concerted action is needed to address global emissions" of greenhouse gases. 

Dr. Heidi Cullen, Climate Expert with the Weather Channel and formerly a scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) shared her interviews with native Alaskans on climate change, who say "the weather has become a stranger to them." Dr. Cullen said, "Alaska's average winter temperature has increased by 6.4 °F (3.6 °C) since 1948.....enough to thaw permafrost and melt sea ice at the shoreline." Dr. Cullen's video documentaries illustrated the effect climate change is already having on native Alaskans: increased coastal erosion with loss of village homes and buildings, damage to buildings and roads by melting permafrost, indigenous people’s hunting affected by diminished sea ice, and devastation of large areas of Alaska's forests by spruce bark beetles.

The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) is a high-level intergovernmental report based on a four-year scientific study of the Arctic conducted by an international team of 300 scientists and sponsored by the eight arctic nations (Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States) and six indigenous people’s organizations.  All briefing presentations are available on EESI’s website, archives.eesi.org. 

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