Arctic melt has passed the point of no return
December 16th, 2008 by Jim JustA new study from scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) says that Arctic ice is in its death spiral.
The UK Independent reports:
Scientists have found the first unequivocal evidence that the Arctic region is warming at a faster rate than the rest of the world at least a decade before it was predicted to happen.
Climate-change researchers have found that air temperatures in the region are higher than would be normally expected during the autumn because the increased melting of the summer Arctic sea ice is accumulating heat in the ocean. The phenomenon, known as Arctic amplification, was not expected to be seen for at least another 10 or 15 years and the findings will further raise concerns that the Arctic has already passed the climatic tipping-point towards ice-free summers, beyond which it may not recover.
The Arctic is considered one of the most sensitive regions in terms of climate change and its transition to another climatic state will have a direct impact on other parts of the northern hemisphere, as well more indirect effects around the world.
Scientists’ models have predicted totally ice-free summers in the Arctic sometime in the last half of this century, but many scientists now believe that the first ice-free summer could occur within the next 20 years.
The loss of Arctic ice has serious consequences for amplifying carbon cycle feedbacks, as the accelerated warming signal penetrates up to 1500 km inland. Joseph Romm sums it up at Climate Progress:
Once the Arctic sea ice goes, it becomes much harder to save the defrosting of the tundra, which contains as much carbon as the atmosphere, much of which is likely to be released as methane, a far more potent greenhouse gas than CO2.
New NASA satellite data reveals more than 2 trillion tons of land ice in Greenland, Antarctica and Alaska have melted since 2003.