Explorer Says Arctic Ice Thinning Noticeably

Updated: Sun, May 27 3:07 PM EDT

By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The ice sheets covering the Arctic seas have thinned noticeably over the last seven years, most likely as a result of global warming, said a Norwegian explorer who has just skied alone across the top of the world.

Boerge Ousland, speaking after an 82-day trip in which he traveled 1,300 miles from the northern tip of Russia to the North Pole and then down to Canada, said on Sunday he had seen other evidence which hinted strongly at the effects of climate change.

The 38-year-old explorer, holder of four long-distance polar skiing records, measured the ice thickness as part of a study by the Norwegian Polar Institute. He made similar measurements on a trek from Russia to the North Pole in 1994.

"The ice toward the North Pole seems to be much thinner than normal and this made it much more broken so that the conditions were much more difficult than they had been in 1994 ... at around 87 degrees North it was up to a meter thinner," Ousland said.

"I think personally that things are happening with (global) warming ... that the ice is getting thinner and there is less ice," he told reporters during his first meeting with the media since reaching Ward Hunt Island in Canada's Arctic on Wednesday.

Officials with the expedition said the ice that Ousland had measured during the trip ranged from two feet to six feet in depth.

Many scientists believe that increasing emissions of greenhouse gases -- caused by burning fossil fuels -- are contributing significantly to global warming.

Earlier studies showed the Arctic sea ice had thinned over the last 30 years or so to six feet from 10 feet and had shrunk by around six percent since 1975.

Ousland said he had noticed other distinct changes in the Arctic since 1994, including a much greater number of polar bears closer to the North Pole.

POLAR BEARS PROLIFERATING

"I saw between 50 and 60 polar bear tracks on the Russian side. In 1994 I saw two tracks, so that's a big, big change," he said. One explanation could be that thinning ice meant the bears needed to travel further to hunt seals, he added.

At one point the explorer was almost ambushed by a female polar bear and her two cubs but managed to scare them off with a warning shot from his revolver.

Ousland said he had also been startled to see large pieces of driftwood from Siberia very close to the North Pole, another possible indicator that the ice was much thinner than usual.

"I saw big logs standing straight up, like poles, with roots and everything. I also saw sand from riverbeds on (pieces of) ice which probably came from the coast of Russia," he said.

In 1990, Ousland and a colleague were the first people to ski unaided to the North Pole and in 1994 he repeated the feat by himself. In 1996 he became the first person to ski solo to the South Pole and a year later he became the first to cross the Antarctic continent unaided and alone.

But the goal of his latest trip -- to become the first man to ski across the Arctic unaided -- died on the third day when his sledge broke and a new one had to be airlifted to him.

"This was a big, big mental stress and for me it was actually a victory to actually keep on going," he said.

Ousland lost 37 pounds during his trek despite a diet of 7,000 calories a day and is still in pain from "pretty bad" frostbite in both thighs. During his trek he averaged about 10 hours of skiing a day, dragging a sled which weighed 360 pounds at the outset.

Ousland said he had been shocked by the death of Japanese Polar explorer Hyoichi Kohno, who drowned after plunging through thin ice in the Canadian Arctic earlier this month.

"It was a big stress for me because I was thinking about all the times I have had close calls on thin ice and how thin the line is between life and death when you are going on solo expeditions out there," said Ousland, who at one point was just 1.2 miles from where Kohno died.

-- Anonymous, May 27, 2001