Arctic researchers need to find ways to keep working together
New publication by Torben Røjle Christensen
Abstract:
The Arctic is warming faster on average than the rest of the world, with global consequences. Without curbing greenhouse-gas emissions, within 15 years, there could be no summer sea ice to reflect solar radiation from around Earth’s North Pole, amplifying heating elsewhere. Meltwater from ice sheets will push sea levels up. And the region’s thawing soils will release methane into the atmosphere, boosting greenhouse-gas concentrations further — such releases already seem to be accelerating. All told, what’s happening now in polar regions could push the planet’s climate system beyond ‘tipping points’ into a completely new state. For example, ice cores show that ice sheets in Greenland and the Antarctic are extremely sensitive and could deteriorate suddenly, in unexpected ways.