Researchers: arctic ice to be gone soon

YELLOWKNIFE, Northwest Territories, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- British researchers who spent more than two months in the Canadian Arctic say the once-permanent ice cover will be gone within 20 years.

The three researchers from the University of Cambridge's Polar Ocean Physics Group spent 73 days exploring the region and taking ice samples, the Toronto Globe and Mail reported Thursday.

Researcher Pen Hadow said all indications showed the arctic ice was thinner and no longer had multi-year layers.

Professor Peter Wadhams, who heads the group, told the newspaper summer ice conditions would likely never return to their levels of 20 years ago.

He said the consequences of the massive thaw included a release of methane from the ground that would exacerbate global warming and higher acidity in the waters that would affect the ecosystem.

"You're essentially, for the first time, creating an ocean, which is not something you want to do as a global experiment, because you cannot take the ocean away," Wadhams said.