The following article is reproduced with permission from conversationan online publication covering the latest research.
In the Arctic, the freedom to travel, hunt and make day-to-day decisions goes hand in hand with cold and freezing conditions for most of the year. These conditions are changing rapidly as the Arctic warms.
The Arctic is seeing more rain now than it has historically seen snow. Sea ice that once protected coastlines from erosion during autumn storms is forming. Thinner river and lake ice makes snowmobile travel increasingly life-threatening.
Ship traffic in the Arctic is also increasing, posing new risks to fragile ecosystems, and the Greenland ice sheet continues to pump fresh water and ice into the ocean, raising global sea levels
in the annual Arctic Transcriptpublished on 13 December 2022, we brought together 144 other Arctic scientists from 11 countries to study the current state of the Arctic system.
The Arctic is getting wetter and wetter
we discover Arctic precipitation increases in all seasonsthe seasons are turning.
Most of the new precipitation is now falling as rain, sometimes during winter and during traditionally freezing times of the year. This disrupts the daily lives of humans, wildlife and plants.
Roads are icing more frequently and communities are at greater risk of river flooding. For indigenous reindeer herding communities, winter rains create an impenetrable layer of ice that prevents their reindeer from accessing vegetation beneath the snow.
On the Arctic scale, this shift to wetter conditions could disrupt the life of plants and animals that have evolved for drier and colder conditions, possibly altering the local foods of Arctic peoples.
When 1.4 inches of freezing rain fell in Fairbanks, Alaska in December 2021, the moisture formed an ice sheet that lasted for months, bringing down trees and disrupting travel, infrastructure and the ability of some Arctic animals to forage .The resulting ice sheet is mainly responsible for the deaths of a third of the bison herd Inland Alaska.
There are several reasons for the increase in Arctic precipitation.
As sea ice shrinks rapidly, more open water is exposed, adding moisture to the atmosphere.The entire Arctic has experienced more than 40% reduction in summer sea ice extent Over 44 years of satellite records.
The Arctic atmosphere is also warming More than twice as fast as the rest of the worldand this warmer air can hold more moisture.
Underground, Wetter and Rainier Arctic Is Speeding Up permafrost thaw, most Arctic communities and infrastructure are built upon it. The result is collapsing buildings, sagging and cracking roads, sinkholes and the collapse of community shorelines along rivers and oceans.
Wetter weather also undermines reliable winter snowpack and safe, reliable river ice formation, and often challenges the efforts of Indigenous communities Harvest and protect their food.
when Typhoon Marbek Striking in September 2022, its hurricane-force winds, 50-foot swells and far-reaching storm surges, driven by unusually warm Pacific waters, damaged homes and infrastructure on more than 1,000 miles of Bering Sea coastline and disrupted hunting and harvesting.
Arctic snow season is shortening
Snow plays a vital role in the Arctic and snow seasons are shortening.
Snow helps keep the Arctic cool by reflecting incoming solar radiation back into space rather than having it absorbed by darker, snow-free ground.its presence helps Lake ice lasts longer into spring And helps the land retain moisture for longer in summer, preventing overly dry conditions from ripening devastating wildfire.
Snow is also a travel platform for hunters and a habitat for many animals that depend on snow for nesting and protection from predators.
One Shrinking season These critical functions are being disrupted. For example, June snowpack across the Arctic is declining at a rate of nearly 20 percent per decade, marking a sea change in the definition and experience of the northern snow season.
Even in the middle of winter, the temperature is gradually rising. Temperatures hit 40 degrees Fahrenheit (4.4 degrees Celsius) in the northern Alaska town of Utqiagvik —8 F above freezing-December 5, 2022, even if the sun doesn’t break the horizon from mid-November to mid-January.
Falls to death from thin sea, lake and river ice on the rise Across Alaska, causing immediate tragedy and increasing Cumulative human costs of climate change Indigenous peoples of the Arctic are now being passed down from generation to generation.
Melting Greenland glaciers mean global problem
The effects of Arctic warming are not limited to the Arctic. 2022, Greenland ice sheet melts for 25th year in a row. This exacerbates rising sea levels, exacerbating the danger that coastal communities around the world must develop plans to mitigate flooding and storm surges.
In early September 2022, the Greenland Ice Sheet experienced Unprecedented end-of-season melt event spanning 36% of ice sheet surfaceThis was followed by another, even later melt event in the same month, caused by the remnants of Hurricane Fiona moving along eastern North America.
International team of scientists Working to assess the scale of the imbalance in ice formation and ice loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet. They are also learning more and more about the transformative role of warming ocean waters.
This year’s Arctic report card includes Discovery by NASA’s Ocean Melting Greenland (OMG) mission This confirms that warming ocean temperatures are increasing ice loss at the edge of the ice sheet.
Man-made changes are reshaping the Arctic
We live in a new geological age —Anthropocene– where human activities are the main influence on our climate and environment.
In a warming Arctic, this requires policymakers to better predict the interactions between climate change and human activities. For example, satellite-based ship data since 2009 clearly show that Maritime Ship Traffic As the region warms, water volumes in all Arctic high seas and within countries’ exclusive economic zones have increased.
For these ecologically sensitive waters, increased vessel traffic raises pressing concerns, from the future of Arctic trade routes to more anthropogenic pressures on Arctic peoples, ecosystems, and climate. These concerns are all the more pronounced given the current uncertainty surrounding geopolitical tensions between Russia and other Arctic states over the Ukraine war.
Rapid warming of the Arctic requires new forms of partnership and information sharing, including between scientists and indigenous knowledge holders. Collaboration and building resilience can help reduce some risks, but global action to curb greenhouse gas pollution is critical for the entire planet.
This article was originally published on conversation. read source article.
