Starving seabirds on Alaska coast show climate change peril

By CHRISTINA LARSON
AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Dead and dying seabirds collected on the coasts of the northern Bering and southern Chukchi seas over the past six years reveal how the Arctic’s fast-changing climate is threatening the ecosystems and people who live there. The data on seabirds is part of an annual report released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, called the “Arctic Report Card,” that documents changes in a region warming faster than anywhere else on Earth. The report found that last year’s Arctic annual surface air temperatures were the sixth warmest since records began in 1900. And satellite records revealed that for several weeks last summer, large regions near the North Pole were virtually clear of sea ice.