US Secretary of State John Kerry and Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende tour the Blomstrand Glacier
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry yesterday visited Norway’s extreme north, viewing areas where climate change has melted ice and opened new sea lanes.
Trailed by staff and journalists in small Zodiac-type inflatable boats, Kerry and Norway’s foreign minister motored in an Arctic research vessel from a research station in Ny-Alesund, the world’s northernmost civilian settlement, across the iceberg strewn Kongsifjorden (King’s Bay Fjord) to the Blomstrand Glacier.
The glacier has receded significantly in the past 25 years to 30 years, with summer temperatures now 8 degrees and 11 degrees higher than they were, according to Jan-Gunnar Winther, the director of the Norwegian Polar Institute, who guided Kerry and Foreign Minister Borge Brende.
“It’s stunning,” Kerry said. “This is the center of change within the center of change.”
As America’s top diplomat, Kerry has made the health of oceans and combating the effects of climate change a priority, and he will host an international conference on oceans in September.
“We’re not on the pace we need to be” to reverse the effects of climate change, Kerry said. He called for renewed efforts to move away from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy.
“Even where there is awareness, the steps that people are taking are not big enough fast enough,” Kerry said. “We have a huge distance to travel.”
Kerry was to travel to Denmark today and stop at icecaps in Greenland the next day. AP
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