Credit: Arctic Arc
Scientists working with the Arctic Arc expedition from Siberia to Greenland have posted some startling observations. Coupled with the shattered, disintegrating ice experienced by the explorers on the 106-day traverse over the North Pole and down the ice-bound coast of Greenland, it makes for sobering reading.
In fact, the story, posted on the Arctic Arc site, could make “your flesh creep:”
“You should know first of all”, explained (climate scientist) Thierry Fichefet, “that in the Arctic, the warming observed in recent years is twice as great as anywhere else on earth. … The extent of the sea ice in the Arctic has decreased, in the course of the last thirty years, by approximately 2.7% per decade. … In summer, we observed a reduction in the summer extent of the Arctic sea ices of almost 7.5% per decade.”
The post offers links, a recap of recent thinking about Arctic warming, a warning that summer ice could disappear completely, and some decent photos of Arctic scenes.
Credit: Thierry Fichefet
More comments from Fichefet:
“If one continues to emit CO2 into the atmosphere at the current rate, the Arctic sea ice would completely disappear during the summer months, after some 50 to 60 years.” …
In parallel with the melt of the Arctic ice, things are happening at the level of Greenland’s icecap. “There again, it’s the satellites that come to our aid”, Fichefet pointed out. “Their observations indicate that the extent of the summer melt of the coastal areas of Greenland has increased by almost 30 percent during the last thirty years.
“On the other hand, we’ve also noticed a slight increase in the thickness of the icecap in the centre of Greenland (snowfalls being more abundant than previously). But this increased thickness is in no case compensated by the increase in the melt that occurs each summer in the coastal areas. Therefore, if we talk about the net assessment of the Greenlandic icecap, we can say that it is negative, which means in other words that at the present time, this icecap is losing volume.”
The Professor then explained to us that, thanks to simulations that his team had made with Loveclim, if one quadruples the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere — which is perfectly plausible — and if one maintains this concentration constant in time, in that particular case, the Greenlandic icecap (which is between 2 and 3 km thick) would disappear in less than 3,000 years.