Glaciers melting away

Photo: The Canadian Press

Ice floats in Slidre Fjord outside the Eureka Weather Station on Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Monday, July 24, 2006. New research finds that hundreds of glaciers in Canada's High Arctic are shrinking and that many are likely fated to disappear.

New research finds that hundreds of glaciers in Canada's High Arctic are shrinking and that many are likely fated to disappear.

Adrienne White of the University of Ottawa looked at more than 1,700 glaciers on Ellesmere Island.

In a recently published paper, she says three-quarters of them have shrunk significantly since 2000 and all of them are getting at least somewhat smaller.

She says none of them is growing.

The Canadian Arctic is experiencing some of the fastest climate warming anywhere on Earth and the annual average temperature on Ellesmere Island has increased by 3.6 degrees.

White says more and larger icebergs are likely to be released into the ocean in the short term.

Little is known about long-term impacts.