Some 16 Russian scientists and staff housed at a floating research station in the high Arctic ice fields have requested an emergency evacuation.
The station, called North Pole 40, is close to the Canadian Economic Zone and replaced another station that had existed for only two years.
The researchers monitor the ocean environment and pollution, as well as acting as a weather station and conducting experiments.
North Pole-40 began operation last October and the scientists and staff were supposed to remain through the spring and summer into September. However they say the ice field around them is melting and the ice floe underneath them is in danger of breaking up. They say the situation now poses a danger to their safety and have requested the rapid arrival of Russian nuclear icebreaker to take them and their equipment to safety.
Staff at an earlier research station, North Pole 37 in 2010, also had to be evacuated well before schedule due to melting ice, and North Pole 39 had to be moved to another area when the ice it was on began to melt.
Scientific agencies reported that 2012 was one of the warmest years since 1850. Many scientists have reported record ice loss in the Arctic in recent years.
The World Meterological Organization report of May 2, 2013. quotes WMO secretary-general Michel Jarraud as saying, “The record loss of Arctic sea ice in August-September 2012— 18% less than the previous record low of 2007 of 4.17 million km2 — was also a disturbing sign of climate change,”
Because of the increasing instability and unreliability of ice in Arctic, Russia this year allocated the equivalent of $66-million dollars to build a self-propelled, strengthened platform for future research stations.
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