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The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E), a high-resolution passive microwave Instrument on NASA’s Aqua satellite shows the state of Arctic sea ice on September 10 in this image released September 16, 2008.

OTTAWA (Reuters) – The Arctic is warming up so quickly that the region’s sea ice cover in summer could vanish as early as 2013, decades earlier than some had predicted, a leading polar expert said on Thursday.

Warwick Vincent, director of the Center for Northern Studies at Laval University in Quebec, said recent data on the ice cover “appear to be tracking the most pessimistic of the models”, which call for an ice free summer in 2013.

The year “2013 is starting to look as though it is a lot more reasonable as a prediction. But each year we’ve been wrong — each year we’re finding that it’s a little bit faster than expected,” he told Reuters.

The Arctic is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the world and the sea ice cover shrank to a record low in 2007 before growing slightly in 2008.

In 2004 a major international panel forecast the cover could vanish by 2100. Last December, some experts said the summer ice could go in the next 10 or 20 years.

If the ice cover disappears, it could have major consequences. Shipping companies are already musing about short cuts through the Arctic, which also contains enormous reserves of oil and natural gas.

Vincent’s scientific team has spent the last 10 summers on Ward Hunt Island, a remote spot some 2,500 miles northwest of Ottawa.

“I was astounded as to how fast the changes are taking place. The extent of open water is something that we haven’t experienced in the 10 years that I’ve been working up there,” he said after making a presentation in the Canadian Parliament.

“We’re losing, irreversibly, major features of the Canadian ice scape and that suggests that these more pessimistic models are really much closer to reality.”

In 2008 the maximum summer temperature on Ward Hunt hit 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit) compared to the usual 5 degrees. Last summer alone the five ice shelves along Ellesmere Island in Canada’s Far North, which are more than 4,000 years old, shrunk by 23 percent.

Vincent told Reuters last September that it was clear some of the damage would be permanent and that the warming in the Arctic was a sign of what the rest of the world could expect. He struck a similarly gloomy note in his presentation.

“Some of this is unstoppable. We’re in a train of events at the moment where there are changes taking place that we are unable to reverse, the loss of these ice shelves, for example,” he said.

“But what we can do is slow down this process and we have to slow down this process because we need to buy more time. We simply don’t have the technologies as a civilization to deal with this level of instability that is ahead of us.”

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama summoned allies, skeptics and health care figures of all stripes to the White House Thursday to debate ideas for overhauling the nation’s costly system and declared, “The status quo is the one option that is not on the table.”

The big Washington session — Obama called it a health care summit — and meetings to follow around the country show the new president’s push for expanded health insurance will be more open and inclusive than the Clinton administration’s failed attempt of 15 years ago.

“In this effort, every voice must be heard. Every idea must be considered. Every option must be on the table. There will be no sacred cows in this discussion,” Obama said as he opened his White House forum on what he calls the greatest threat to the foundation of the U.S. economy. He also issued a warning: “Those who seek to block any reform at any cost will not prevail this time around.”

Willingness to compromise
The U.S. system is the world’s costliest and leaves an estimated 48 million people uninsured.

Although he wants coverage for all, the president suggested a willingness to compromise even if it means not fully meeting his goal. That, too, was a break from former President Bill Clinton’s posture in the 1990s when he promised to veto any health care measure that didn’t give him what he sought.

This time, Obama said, “Each of us must accept that none of us will get everything we want, and no proposal for reform will be perfect.” And, he said, “While everyone has a right to take part in this discussion, no one has the right to take it over.”

Obama is setting a rigorous timeline to address the “crushing cost of health care this year, in this administration.” His advisers say he’s determined to pass legislation in his first year in office, and they say while he hopes for a bipartisan measure, he won’t be deterred by ideological fights.

On Capitol Hill, Democratic leaders in both the House and Senate rallied behind him, saying Thursday that they hoped to have a health care reform measure passed by the end of the summer.

Still, the political reality of reshaping the complex medical system is certain to intervene as the broad discussion about the need for reform gives way to the details. Those may well conflict with the priorities of a host of stakeholders, including patients, doctors, labor unions, drug companies, businesses and employers, insurers and lawmakers up for re-election next year.

At the same time, there’s also a fundamental fault line between Democrats and Republicans over the role of government in the health care system.

Avoiding Clinton’s mistakes
For now, Obama is seeking to use his popularity as a new president and the public’s high level of frustration with medical costs to get something done on the thorny issue without making the same mistakes as the last Democratic president.

In hindsight, both supporters and opponents agree that Clinton made a series of missteps and miscalculations that doomed his plan from the outset.

With first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton leading the charge, the measure was written by the White House with little input from lawmakers or interest groups. Stakeholders of all sides complained they were shut out of the process. Clinton’s veto threat also limited his room to negotiate.

This time, Obama is making a very public point to consult with people at the start of deliberations.

Hence, more than 120 people from all sectors — and with a wide range of viewpoints — were taking part in the program. They included longtime health reform heavyweights, including the cancer-battling Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, and some people who helped kill Clinton’s overhaul in the 1990s.

Also unlike Clinton, Obama is planning to send only broad principles to Congress of what he wants to see in the bill, such as increased coverage and controlled costs. The House and Senate will be left to do the heavy lifting. And, Obama is planning to hold a series of health care forums outside of Washington to solicit ideas and drum up support for his plan.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama’s proposed tax increases are being met with misgivings by both Republicans and Democrats in Congress as he sends his Treasury secretary to Capitol Hill to defend them.

Lawmakers in both parties question Obama’s call to reduce high-income earners’ tax deductions for the interest on their house payments and for charitable contributions. Also drawing fire is his proposal to start taxing industries on their greenhouse gas pollution — a move sure to raise consumers’ electric rates.  Obama and his top aides have been promoting the budget package since unveiling an outline last week, but Tuesday will provide the lawmakers their first opportunity to publicly question top officials about the details.

Administration officials say the nation’s economic crisis requires bold action to right the economy and expand access to health care while providing tax breaks to middle- and low-income families.

The economy took another hit Monday when the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged below 7,000 for the first time since 1997.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was scheduled to appear Tuesday before the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, which also is likely to question him about Obama’s declaration last week that he may be asking Congress this year for another $750 billion bailout for troubled banks.

Meanwhile, White House Budget Director Peter Orszag was to testify Tuesday before the House Budget Committee on Obama’s spending priorities in the administration’s $3.5 trillion budget blueprint for the 2010 fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

Taxes only on wealthiest?
Obama has been careful throughout the presidential campaign and since being elected to say he would impose higher taxes only on the wealthiest. Republicans, however, say Obama’s energy proposal amounts to a tax that would increase energy costs for all Americans.

“This massive hidden energy tax is going to work its way through every aspect of American life,” said Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan, the top Republican on the Ways and Means Committee. “How we light our homes, heat our homes and pay for the gas in our cars, in every phase of our daily lives, we will be paying higher costs.”

Under the energy plan, Obama wants to reduce the emissions blamed for global warming by auctioning off carbon pollution permits. The proposal, known as cap and trade, is projected to raise $646 billion over 10 years.

Most of the money would be used to pay for Obama’s “Making Work Pay” tax credit, which provides up to $400 a year to individuals and $800 a year to couples. The plan also would raise money for clean-fuel technologies, such as solar and wind power.

Orszag has acknowledged that the energy proposal would increase costs for consumers, but he argues that the vast majority of consumers will get tax breaks elsewhere in Obama’s budget package.

A Sumatran tiger is seen here at the National Zoo in Washington, DC.

JAKARTA (AFP) – Indonesian villagers have trapped and killed a fourth endangered Sumatran tiger amid a spate of tiger attacks blamed on illegal logging, according to environmental group WWF.

Four tigers and six people have been killed on Sumatra island this month, it said.

“We learnt on February 24 that another Sumatran tiger had been trapped and killed by villagers after it attacked two farmers on Sunday,” WWF spokeswoman Syamsidar told AFP.  “This is the fourth tiger killed this month and we are concerned because it is a protected animal and an endangered species.”

The farmers from Simpang Gaung village in Riau province were seriously injured in the attack, Syamsidar said.

“The tiger in the latest killing had wandered into the village as its habitat had been destroyed by people,” she added.

Indonesian Forestry Minister Malam Sambat Kaban urged the provincial police to arrest the tiger killers, Detikcom news website reported.

“I urge the police to carry out a complete investigation… the killers must be arrested quickly,” he was quoted as saying.

“They can’t kill these tigers as they please. Whatever their excuse, the tigers must be protected.”

There are fewer than 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild and their increasing contact with people is a result of habitat loss due to deforestation, according to the wildlife group.

It said about 12 million hectares (30 million acres) of forest on Sumatra had been cleared in the past 22 years, a loss of nearly 50 percent islandwide.

The incidents in Riau occurred in an area dotted with pulp and oil palm plantations and recently subjected to burning to clear forests.