The latest update on Arctic climate shows that temperatures at the top of the world are increasing at twice the global rate, setting an assortment of records and near-records.
“Rarely have we seen the Arctic show a clearer, stronger or more pronounced signal of persistent warming and its cascading effects on the environment than this year,” Jeremy Mathis, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Arctic Research Program, said in a news release.
The Arctic Report Card, issued annually by NOAA, was released today in conjunction with the American Geophysical Union’s fall meeting in San Francisco. The annual report brings together peer-reviewed findings produced by 61 scientists from 11 nations.
Among the report card’s key findings:
- Average annual air temperature over land areas hit a record high, representing an increase of 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit (3.5 degrees Celsius) since 1900.
- Sea surface temperatures in August were 9 degrees F (5 degrees C) above the average for 1982-2010 in the Barents and Chukchi seas and off the east and west coasts of Greenland.
- The Greenland ice sheet recorded the second-earliest start of melting in the 37-year record of observations, on April 10. The only earlier date came in 2012.
- Spring snow cover set a record low in the North American Arctic, with the May snow cover extent falling below 1.5 million square miles (4 million square kilometers) for the first time since satellite observations began in 1967.
- Minimum sea-ice extent at the end of the summer tied with 2007 for the second-lowest in the satellite record, going back to 1979..
Researchers found that the warming Arctic tundra is now releasing more carbon into the atmosphere than it is taking up. Because carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, such a release “could have profound effects on weather and climate in the Arctic and the rest of the Earth” if it were to continue, NOAA said. That’s because there’s twice as much organic carbon locked up in the northern permafrost as there is today in Earth’s atmosphere.
The carbon-release effect could accelerate the pace of climate change produced by industrial carbon emissions. An international agreement aimed at reducing such emissions entered into force last month, but President-elect Donald Trump has promised to “cancel” U.S. compliance with the pact.
Many climate researchers worry that the Trump administration will cut back on federal funding for their studies, in line with the president-elect’s stated view that climate concerns are part of a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese.
Several prospects for Cabinet posts – including Trump’s choices to head the Environmental Protection Agency and the Energy Department – are similarly at odds with mainstream climate science.
The Washington Post reported today that some researchers have begun a “feverish attempt” to copy data onto independent computer servers to preserve their decades-old databases from potential political interference or deletion.
