Study sounds the alarm for Arctic ice

Study sounds the alarm for Arctic ice

What has happened?

Even if humanity stops global warming in its tracks at two degress Celsius, long seen as the guardrail for a climate-safe world, Arctic sea ice will still disappear in some years, scientists have warned

Odds better if held at 1.5 degrees though

In a 2 degrees Celsius world, the Arctic Ocean would be ice-free roughly one-in-four years, whereas if warming does not exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius, the odds drop to one-in-40, the researchers concluded.

Effects of shrinking ice cover

• Accelerates global warming: As millions of square kilometres of snow reflecting the Sun’s radiation back into space is replaced with dark blue ocean that absorbs it instead
• Rising temperatures of poles: Even during winters, North Pole is tens of degrees Celsius warmer than Europe and North America

Receding sea ice cover

• Over the last four decades, minimum sea ice extent has dropped by about 40%
• The Arctic Ocean is projected to become ice-free in summer (meaning less than one million square kilometres) by mid-century unless greenhouse gas emissions are rapidly and deeply reduce

Global CO2 emissions back up in 2017

After remaining flat for three years, global CO2 emissions in 2017 went up by 1.4%, dashing hopes that they had peaked, the International Energy Agency reported last week.

Second Study

Under 3 degrees Celsius global average warming, permanent summer ice-free conditions are likely

Paris treaty: 2 degrees target not enough

• Above studies are the most recent to conclude that a 2 degrees Celsius world will not prevent severe impacts such as mass migrations due to rising seas, regional food and water shortages, and an increase in extreme weather, including heatwaves, droughts and floods
• Only a few years ago, the 2 degrees Celsius target was upheld as the threshold for avoiding such consequences.