Arctic Temperatures Reach Record Highs
The amount of sea ice disappearing from the Arctic is unprecedented. Even when the region should gaining ice, we instead saw the opposite this year. This phenomenon is occurring in multiple arctic regions.
Sea ice maintains a heat balance in the Northern Hemisphere. Losing this ice means that balance is thrown askew. This heat influences everything from the migratory patterns of walruses to the blooms of plankton. Disrupting the sea ice also contributes to storm and weather pattern changes throughout the Northern Hemisphere.
The levels of sea ice this year are at a historic low. As the summer approaches, its likely that low will dropper even further.
In 2012, we saw the levels of sea ice hit a record low. Since then, each year has gotten close to that level. This year brings an earlier start to the ice melt season, and with it comes to disappearing glaciers.
Greenland is one place this is occurring on a mammoth scale. As Axios reports:
The portion of Greenland experiencing melting ice hit a record high for the date on June 13, with temperatures rising to near freezing at Summit Station, in the center of the ice sheet.
The Arctic is heating up at an alarming rate. Twice that of the rest of the world. We're heading towards a time without a frozen pole. We're heading towards a time when the ice won't be able to freeze in the winters, and each summer will leave it instead a barren sea.
"At the moment, you can essentially sail uninterrupted from the North Pacific to the Canadian Arctic," says Zack Labe, a climate scientist and Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Irvine.
"The Arctic is a regulator of Northern Hemisphere climate, and while the ice that is melting now isn't going to affect whether you get a thunderstorm tomorrow, in the long term, these are going to have profound effects on your weather and climate down the road that you will have to take action on, like it or not," says Rick Thoman of the University of Alaska at Fairbanks.
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