LONDON - Santa Claus may have to swap his sleigh for waterwings sooner than expected as global warming melts his Arctic home, environmental group WWF said on Friday.
A new study for the organisation formerly known as the Worldwide Fund for Nature predicts that the earth could warm by two degrees centigrade above pre-industrial levels as early as 2026 -- and by triple that amount in the Arctic. "This ... could result in Santa's home changing forever," said the report by Mark New of Oxford University.
And Rudolph and his fellow reindeer are not the only creatures under threat -- polar bears, ice-dwelling seals and several forms of Arctic vegetation are also at risk.
"We are already seeing signs of significant change in the Arctic with mountain glaciers retreating, snow cover disappearing, the Greenland ice sheet thinning and Arctic sea ice cover declining," said WWF climate campaigner Andrew Lee.
"All these changes tell us there is no time to lose -- we need to take drastic action now to combat climate change."