Arctic climate changed as much in decade as planet’s temperatures rose in 137 years
THE Arctic has warmed as much in the last decade as the rest of the planet has in 137 years, warns a new study.
With 2019 on course to be one of the warmest years on record, researchers found that the Arctic has warmed by 0.75C in the last 10 years alone.
By comparison, the Earth as a whole has warmed by nearly the same amount, 0.8C, over the past 137 years, according to the findings published in the journal Science Advances.
Study lead author
Eric Post, a professor of climate change ecology at University of California, Davis, said: “Many of the changes over the past decade are so dramatic they make you wonder what the next decade of warming will bring.
“If we haven’t already entered a new Arctic, we are certainly on the threshold.”
The comprehensive report was compiled by an international team of 15 researchers specialising in areas including life, Earth, social, and political sciences.
They documented the widespread effects of warming in the Arctic and Antarctic on wildlife, traditional human livelihoods, tundra vegetation, methane release, and loss of sea-ice and land ice.
They also examined consequences for the polar regions as the Earth inches towards the 2C warming milestone.
Mr Post said: “Under a business-as-usual scenario, the Earth as a whole may reach that milestone in about 40 years.
“But the Arctic is already there during some months of the year, and it could reach 2C warming on an annual mean basis as soon as 25 years before the rest of the planet.”
The study illustrates what 2C of global warming could mean for the high latitudes: up to 7C warming for the Arctic and 3C warming for the Antarctic during some months of the year.
The researchers say that measures to reduce carbon emissions are “crucial” to slowing high latitude warming, especially in the Arctic.
Mr Post emphasised that major consequences of projected warming in the absence of carbon mitigation are expected to reach beyond the polar regions.
He said these include sea level rises resulting from rapid melting of land ice in the Arctic and Antarctic, as well as an increased risk of extreme weather, deadly heat waves, and wildfire in parts of the Northern Hemisphere.