<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/07/melting-arctic-sea-ice-summer-report>
"The climate crisis has pushed the planet’s stores of ice to a widespread
collapse that was “unthinkable just a decade ago”, with Arctic sea ice certain
to vanish in summers and ruinous sea level rise from melting glaciers now
already in motion, a major new report has warned.
Even if planet-heating emissions are radically cut, the world’s vast ice sheets
at the poles will continue to melt away for hundreds of years, causing up to
three metres of sea level rise that will imperil coastal cities, the report
states. The “terminal” loss of sea ice from the Arctic during summers could
arrive within a decade and now cannot be avoided, it adds.
“There’s nothing we can do about that now. We’ve just screwed up and let the
system warm too much already,” said Julie Brigham-Grette, a scientist at
University of Massachusetts Amherst and report co-author, about the sea ice.
“That milestone has now passed so the next thing we need to avoid is ice shelf
collapses in Antarctica and the further breakdown of the ice systems in
Greenland. We can’t stuff the genie back into the bottle once they are gone.”
Disappearance of sea ice will open up the dark Arctic ocean, which will absorb
– rather than reflect – heat, causing global heating to escalate further. It
will also upend the region’s ecosystem, harming everything from algae to large
animals such as seals and polar bears that need the sea ice for hunting.
“It’s a terminal diagnosis and now we have to live with consequences,” said
Robbie Mallett, a sea ice expert at University College London Earth Sciences.
“It’s been quite emotional to think of a time by the end of my career when I
will see an Arctic free of sea ice. It’s been a shocking few years in Greenland
with ice disappearing before our eyes. We are driving a whole environment to
extinction.”
The loss of Arctic sea ice is “not the only sign of growing cryosphere
collapse”, according to the
State of the Cryosphere report, which has been
released by a group of scientists at the start of the United Nations’ Cop27
climate talks in Egypt.
In just the past year, researchers have been astonished by the sight of rain at
the summit of Greenland’s enormous ice sheet for the first time on record,
followed by rain, rather than snow, falling on east Antarctica in March amid
startling heatwaves at both poles, with temperatures 40C (72F) above normal."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
