U.S. scientists have found evidence that the Arctic has rapidly warmed over the past 40 years, a trend in keeping with predictions from climate change models. Snow cover in the Arctic has dropped by about 10 percent since 1972 and sea ice has also been in decline, dropping to record lows in the western Arctic Ocean two years ago, according to the scientists’ survey of research on environmental change in the Arctic, published in the Dutch journal Climatic Change. In some areas of the Arctic, temperatures have risen markedly over a short period of time; for instance, in parts of Alaska and Eurasia, winter temperatures have increased by nearly 11 degrees Fahrenheit since the early 1970s.
