Arctic permafrost is warming, the Greenland Ice Sheet is melting, and the Arctic fox is facing extinction. So reports the 2012 Arctic Report Card—recently unveiled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The annual report card is an ambitious collaboration among 141 scientists and 15 countries. Its goal: to present timely, peer-reviewed information on environmental conditions in the Arctic, relative to historical records.
One thing is clear: change is underfoot in the Arctic. Warming temperatures are leading to a longer growing season. The landscape is getting greener, and sea ice is melting fast, with 2012 having the lowest sea ice extent since satellite record-keeping began in 1979.
NOAA’s head, Dr. Jane Lubchenco, spoke about the report card at a meeting that I attended in December. She noted that, “What happens in the Arctic doesn’t always stay in the Arctic.”
As Arctic permafrost thaws, carbon dioxide and methane stored in frozen soils is released to the atmosphere, exacerbating climate change. It is estimated that the permafrost contains the carbon equivalent of all of the known coal reserves.
And there is a vicious feedback loop at work. Bright snow and ice reflect sunlight while open oceans, greenery, and soil absorb it. As the Arctic loses its summertime snow and ice cover, it also loses its ability to reflect sunlight, amplifying the warming trend.
Since 1992, melting ice sheets have contributed to some 20% of the sea level rise. And in this short time the pace of melting in the Arctic has accelerated by a factor of five.
Web Links
Arctic Report Card
http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/reportcard/about.html
Scientific American
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=arctic-report-card-dark-times-ahead
Nature
http://www.nature.com/news/grim-picture-of-polar-ice-sheet-loss-1.11921
Photo, taken on August 27, 2012, courtesy of NASA via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. Support for Earth Wise comes from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY, with partial support from the Field Day Foundation.