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The Arctic is crumbling faster than scientists thought.
Now concerns are growing that the entire ice area has been caught in a destructive “death spiral.”
– The summer ice situation is clearly bad, says glaciologist Per Holmlund.
Already last winter, the Arctic was hit by a historic heat wave. The extreme heat didn’t want to let go.
In the spring, communities in northern Siberia noticed a high summer heat.
And during the summer, more than a third of the so-called ice shelf, the part of the glacier that hangs over the sea, broke off at Milne on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic in a violent delivery, according to Reuters.
Right now, the curve is dragging the extent of the ice to record low levels for October, lower than the previous lower prices of 2012 and 2019.
Warming in the Arctic is three times faster than in the rest of the world, and the average temperature has risen a full degree in a decade.
When the ice sheet disappears, the sea can absorb more heat, which in turn can contribute to warmer temperatures and even more melting in a self-reinforcing effect.
According to The Guardian, researchers now fear that the Greenland ice has passed its irreversible tipping point and that, like the rest of the Arctic summer ice, it has begun to destroy itself in a process that the newspaper resembles a “death spiral”.
Photo: US National Ice and Snow Data Center.
The Arctic ice extent curve, showing that the levels of the previous record year 2012 are about to cross.
No ice in fifteen years
A new study published in Nature Climate Change in August predicts that summer ice in the Arctic could disappear as early as 2035, fifteen years earlier than previously thought.
“Whatever emission scenario we have, the summer ice will be lost before the middle of the century, according to the latest models,” Julienne Stroeve, a researcher at the US National Ice and Snow Data Center, told The Guardian.
The extent of the ice now touches the level during the previous extreme year 2012, according to the US National Snow and Ice Data Center.
– If it falls below 2012 levels, it is remarkable, says Per Holmlund, a glaciologist and professor at Stockholm University.
Photo: Private
Per Holmlund, professor of glaciology.
The situation is bad
He believes that the summer ice situation in the Arctic is bad.
– Both the extent and the thickness of the ice decrease drastically. And it goes faster than all the models we’ve developed before, he says.
If the sea around the North Pole becomes ice-free during the summer, it will have far-reaching effects on wildlife.
– The classic example is polar bears, which cannot walk on thin ice and are forced to land. But seals and fish are also affected, says Per Holmlund.
The graph shows how the extent of the ice has decreased and increased over the years and months. The ice sheet is usually thickest in April (green section) and thinner in September (black section).
Beyond rescue
Air currents can also be affected, which can have consequences for the climate throughout the Northern Hemisphere, according to the professor.
Per Holmlund is careful when talking about irreversible turning points, where things get out of hand. At the same time, it is difficult for him to see how the summer ice in the Arctic can be saved.
– Even if we can stop carbon dioxide emissions, the collapse will continue.
Photo: European Space Agency
A block of ice falls from the glacier in Greenland.
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