Climate change hitting Arctic faster, harder

Sea ice beneath midnight sun, Bering Sea off St. Matthew Island Alaska, USA. Photo:Kevin SCHAFER/WWF-Canon

A new report reveals that the Arctic may be closer to its ‘tipping point’, where irreversible damage could be caused due to climate change.

The new study from WWF found melting of arctic sea ice and the Greenland Ice Sheet to be severely accelerated, prompting concerns that both natural systems may experience sudden, rapid change.

‘When you look in detail at the science behind the recent Arctic changes it becomes painfully clear how our understanding of climate impacts lags behind the changes that we are already seeing in the Arctic,’ said Dr Martin Sommerkorn, one of the report’s authors and Senior Climate Change Adviser at WWF International’s Arctic Programme.

While it is currently impossible to accurately predict how much of the ice sheet will be melting, and over which time, the new report shows there has been a far greater loss of ice mass in the past few years, much more than had been predicted by scientific models.

‘This is extremely dangerous, as some of these changes have the potential to substantially increase the warming of the Earth, beyond what models currently forecast,’ says Sommerkorn. The study found that change was occurring in all arctic systems, impacting on the atmosphere and oceans, sea ice and ice sheets, snow and permafrost, as well as species and populations, food webs, ecosystems and human societies.

The Arctic is not only one of the places on Earth most vulnerable to climate change, but also a place where vulnerability is of urgent global relevance. Release of greenhouse gases from its carbon sinks could further fuel global warming.

WWF will launch the report, Arctic Climate Impact Science - An Update Since ACIA, at today’s meeting of the Arctic Council, the intergovernmental forum of arctic nations. ‘The magnitude of the physical and ecological changes in the Arctic creates an unprecedented challenge for governments, the corporate sector, community leaders and conservationists to create the conditions under which arctic natural systems have the best chance to adapt,’ said Sommerkorn . ‘It is now in the hand of the arctic nations to act upon this evidence for climate impacts. They can make a difference if they act strongly, and fast. It is not too late to throw the wheel around but is far too late for business as usual.’