Arctic sea ice is one of the first casualties of rising temperatures. As scientists warn, the probability that the ice will disappear completely in summer is ten times greater if the Earth warms two degrees above pre-industrial levels (compared to the 1.5 degrees that were established in the Agreement of Paris in 2015).
This discovery comes from the Arctic Assessment and Monitoring Program (AMAP) in a painstakingly prepared report for an Arctic Council ministerial meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland. “The Arctic is a real hotspot for global warming,” said Jason Box, a glaciologist with the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland.
Thus, in less than half a century, the average annual temperature of the Arctic has risen 3.1 degrees. An alarming figure considering that the planet has risen in its entirety 1 degree. On the other hand, in a 2019 report on the icy places on Earth, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that the surface air temperature of the Arctic had probably risen more than twice the global average.
Forest fires
A turning point occurred in 2004 when the temperature in the Arctic began to rise disproportionately. Since then, warming has continued at a rate 30 percent higher than in previous decades.
The region is now experiencing more warm days during the winter. To this must be added the heat of the ocean during the summer months, which is increasingly free of ice. Furthermore, as scientists point out, global warming will not come to an end in the medium or short term. In fact, by the end of the century, average temperatures in the Arctic are expected to rise between 3.3 and 10 degrees above the average for the period between 1985 and 2014.
The final figure will depend on how quickly humanity acts to reduce greenhouse emissions. Now more than ever the future of the planet is in our hands.
