Global warming is transforming the Arctic, and the changes have spread so far that the entire biophysical system is moving towards an “unprecedented state,” an international team of researchers has decided in a new analysis of nearly 50 years of temperature readings and changes across ecosystems.
Rising temperatures are triggering cascading effects across Polar Regions, ranging from shrinking ice to changing when plants will bloom and where wildlife can be found.
According to a new federal assessment of the region, the Arctic is going through a deep, rapid, and uninterrupted change in a deeper climatic state, which is green in color, has much fewer ice characteristics, and emits greenhouse gas emissions from molten permafrost.
Climate change will result in climate change, increased greenhouse gas emissions, and rising sea levels from Greenland’s ice sheets and mountain glaciers, the American daily The Washington Post reported. And the change will be felt outside the Arctic as well.
Arctic forests are turning into bugs as the permafrost melts beneath the roots. The surface of the ice that repulses the sun’s radiation into space is getting darker and the sea ice cover is shrinking. Warmth and moisture trapped by greenhouse
gases are pumping the water cycle, causing swollen rivers to carry more sediment and nutrients from the oceans that could alter ocean chemistry and affect the coastal seafood chain. And those are just a few of the changes.
The findings are included in the 2019 Arctic Report Card, a major federal assessment of the trends and effects of climate change across the region. The survey paints a grim picture of a region that is leaning towards a completely new and unfamiliar environment.
Researchers have described how the Arctic, which is 2.4 times faster than the average in the Northern Hemisphere, is experiencing a change in everything from plants to flowers to fish and other animal populations. There are concerns throughout the scientific community that about 1,460 billion to 1,600 billion metric tons of organic carbon, stored in frozen arctic lands, could be released due to the melting of almost twice the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
The rate of change is significant, Landram said in a statement." It’s a time of so rapid change that observations of past weather patterns don’t show you what to expect next year. The Arctic is already entering a completely different climate than it was decades ago. The Arctic could possibly be the ultimate experience of sea ice, temperature, and precipitation far beyond what we have experienced before. We need to change our definition
