The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track planetary extreme, or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉
Main Topic: New Study Indicates That Arctic Summers Could be Nearly Ice Free Within a Decade
Dear Diary. I’ve noticed that during the many decades that I’ve been concerned about our climate each study that comes out seems to be getting more dire. I’ve also noticed that some scientists are becoming surprised at how rapidly the pace of climate change is taking place. Most studies on Arctic sea ice that I’ve read forecast the Arctic to become nearly ice free for a portion of the summer months by about 2050. This week a new study has pushed that timeline forward to the mid 2030s or even slightly earlier. Of course, at the time that this happens a tipping point will have been tipped because our climate depends on the high albedo of ice to reflect incoming solar radiation back into space, thus acting to help keep our climate cool and stable.
Here are more details from Common Dreams:
Arctic Summers Could Be Virtually Ice-Free Within a Decade, Study Warns (commondreams.org)
Arctic Summers Could Be Virtually Ice-Free Within a Decade, Study Warns
The fossil fuel-driven climate crisis is causing Arctic sea ice to disappear more rapidly than expected, according to new research.
Icebergs, calved from the Sermeq Kujalleq glacier, float in the Ilulissat Icefjord in the Arctic Circle. (Photo: Thor Wegner/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)
Mar 06, 2024
The Arctic could be almost completely without sea ice during the summer within the next decade, according to a new study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Reviews Earth & Environment.
The study states that rising temperatures from the human-caused climate crisis are leading to increasing reductions in sea ice during the summer.
“These reductions are projected to continue with ongoing warming, ultimately leading to an ice-free Arctic,” the study says. “In the September monthly mean, the earliest ice-free conditions (the first single occurrence of an ice-free Arctic) could occur in 2020–2030s under all emission trajectories and are likely to occur by 2050.”
Well, I certainly wouldn’t bet against this.
In fact, given the pace of change, I would be surprised if it didn’t happen. HTTPs://t.co/7DPdhMi2ti
— Bill McGuire (@ProfBillMcGuire) March 5, 2024
An Arctic that is nearly completely without sea ice for the summer months would be an environment that is quite different—and dangerous—for indigenous animals like polar bears and seals. Though the Arctic is expected to become ice-free eventually, the study states that when this will occur will depend on how quickly humans stop burning fossil fuels.
“This would transform the Arctic into a completely different environment, from a white summer Arctic to a blue Arctic. So even if ice-free conditions are unavoidable, we still need to keep our emissions as low as possible to avoid prolonged ice-free conditions,” Alexandra Jahn, an associate professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder and a lead author of the research, told The Guardian.
Jahn said that if humans are able to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in the future, the sea ice would eventually return. Many scientists are studying different ways to accomplish carbon removal—an approach that many climate advocates have criticized as a false solution—but experts say reducing greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible is the main priority.
A study from last year found that ice-free summers in the Arctic had become an “unavoidable” future due to climate change. Ice is also disappearing in Antarctica, which is warming more quickly than scientists had anticipated.
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Thor Benson is a staff writer for Common Dreams.
More:
Here are more “ET’s” recorded from around the planet the last couple of days, their consequences, and some extreme temperature outlooks, as well as any extreme precipitation reports:
Here is more brand-new February 2024 climatology:
Here is More Climate News from Wednesday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)