Ice in Bering Sea Declines to Lowest Level in 5,500 Years

 Ice breaks up early on the Kuskokwim River beside the Bering
Sea and near the climate change-affected Yupik Eskimo village of
Quinhagak on the Yukon Delta in Alaska, April 12, 2019. (AFP Photo)
Ice breaks up early on the Kuskokwim River beside the Bering Sea and near the climate change-affected Yupik Eskimo village of Quinhagak on the Yukon Delta in Alaska, April 12, 2019. (AFP Photo)
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Ice in Bering Sea Declines to Lowest Level in 5,500 Years

 Ice breaks up early on the Kuskokwim River beside the Bering
Sea and near the climate change-affected Yupik Eskimo village of
Quinhagak on the Yukon Delta in Alaska, April 12, 2019. (AFP Photo)
Ice breaks up early on the Kuskokwim River beside the Bering Sea and near the climate change-affected Yupik Eskimo village of Quinhagak on the Yukon Delta in Alaska, April 12, 2019. (AFP Photo)

Winter ice in the Bering Sea, in the northern Pacific Ocean between Alaska and Russia, is at its lowest level in the past 5,500 years.

Researchers analyzed vegetation that accumulated on the uninhabited island of Saint Matthew over the last five millennia.

According to AFP, they looked at variations in peat layers of oxygen atoms called isotopes 16 and 18, whose proportions over time correlate with atmospheric and oceanic changes and precipitation.

The 1.45-meter peat core, taken from Saint Matthew in 2012, represented 5,500 years of accumulation.

"It's a small island in the middle of the Bering Sea, and it's essentially been recording what's happening in the ocean and atmosphere around it," said Miriam Jones, the researcher who conducted the study at the University of Alaska and then at the US Geological Survey.

The ice in the Arctic and Bering Seas melts in summer and freezes anew in winter, but satellite observations only date back to 1979. The advantage of the new analysis, published in the journal Science Advances, is that it goes back much further in time.

For the Arctic, the reduction of winter ice in recent decades is clear and rapid, in parallel with global warming and the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. But the Bering Sea in recent decades has seemed stable, the authors of the study say, with the exception of 2018 and 2019, when a strong reduction was observed. In this study, researchers tried to establish whether the current levels are an anomaly or a trend.

"What we've seen most recently is unprecedented in the last 5,500 years," writes Matthew Wooller, director of the Alaska Stable Isotope Facility, who participated in the analysis.

At this rate, conditions are now favorable for a completely ice-free Bering Sea, the authors conclude, highlighting an effect of consequences on the ecosystem.



Pakistan Bans Entry to Parks, Zoos as Air Pollution Worsens

A vendor carries a bucket of radish across a railway track engulfed in smog in Lahore on November 8, 2024. (Photo by Arif ALI / AFP)
A vendor carries a bucket of radish across a railway track engulfed in smog in Lahore on November 8, 2024. (Photo by Arif ALI / AFP)
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Pakistan Bans Entry to Parks, Zoos as Air Pollution Worsens

A vendor carries a bucket of radish across a railway track engulfed in smog in Lahore on November 8, 2024. (Photo by Arif ALI / AFP)
A vendor carries a bucket of radish across a railway track engulfed in smog in Lahore on November 8, 2024. (Photo by Arif ALI / AFP)

Pakistan's Punjab banned entry to many public spaces from Friday, including parks and zoos, as it sought to protect people from severe air pollution in parts of the eastern province.

The provincial capital Lahore has been engulfed in a thick, smoky haze this week and was consistently rated the world's most polluted city by Swiss group IQAir in its live rankings, prompting the closure of schools and work-from-home mandates, Reuters reported.

The Punjab government's Friday order placed a "complete ban on public entry in all parks ... zoos, play grounds, historical places, monuments, museums and joy/play lands" until Nov. 17 in areas including Lahore.

Many parts of South Asia suffer severe pollution as temperatures drop each winter and cold, heavy air traps dust, emissions, and smoke from stubble burning - the illegal practice of burning crop waste to quickly clear fields.

Punjab last week blamed toxic air wafting in from neighboring India - where air quality has also reached hazardous levels - for the particularly high pollution this year.

IQAir rated the Indian capital New Delhi the world's second most polluted city on Friday, with government data indicating that farm fires in the neighboring farming states of Punjab and Haryana were among the major contributors.
To discourage the practice which has been lower this year, India's federal government doubled fines imposed on violators on Wednesday.

Farmers with less than two acres of land will now have to pay 5,000 rupees ($60) for violations. Those owning between two and five acres will pay 10,000 rupees and farmers with more than five acres will pay 30,000 rupees, the environment ministry said.