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Earth

Arctic Ocean may be polluted soup by 2070

By Kate Ravilious

5 August 2009

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

By 2070, the Arctic could be a stagnant polluted sea

(Image: Jonathan Hayward / Rex Features)

Churning it up. The Transpolar Drift and Beaufort Gyre keep the Arctic sea moving

Churning it up. The Transpolar Drift and Beaufort Gyre keep the Arctic sea moving

(Image: LANL)

WITHIN 60 years the Arctic Ocean could be a stagnant, polluted soup. Without drastic cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions, the Transpolar Drift, one of the Arctic’s most powerful currents and a key disperser of pollutants, is likely to disappear because of global warming.

The Transpolar Drift is a cold surface current that travels right across the Arctic Ocean from central Siberia to Greenland, and eventually out into the Atlantic.…

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