Thanks to global warming, there's too much ocean in the Arctic
At this rate, the Arctic is on its way to a summer with absolutely no ice, somewhere between 2030 and 2050.
By SARAH BEN-NUNFloating ice as seen during the expedition of the The Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise ship at the Arctic Ocean, September 14, 2020.(photo credit: REUTERS / NATALIE THOMAS)
Warmer air temperatures, resulting from climate change, have, for the first time ever, withheld ice from being formed in the Laptev Sea near northern Russia, The Guardian reported. How did we get here? Last winter, the ice melted earlier than expected. Then, a record-shattering heat wave caused the ocean temperatures to rise. Once they rise, it takes them a long time to disperse into the atmosphere; the heat remains trapped.This is cause for alarm because there is usually ice at this time of year.Another factor that's led to the lack of ice is the Atlantic waters that have gushed into the Laptev Sea.Atlantic waters are warmer, and as a result, they've been disrupting the usual division between the deeper warm waters, and cooler surface waters, thereby making it harder for the ice to form.At this rate, the Arctic is on its way to a summer with no ice at all, according to Walt Meier, a senior research scientist at the US National Snow and Ice Data Center. “It’s a matter of when, not if," he said.Zachary Labe, a researcher at Colorado State University, further explained that this downward trend in ice formation isn't surprising, and will probably continue. “2020 is another year that is consistent with a rapidly changing Arctic."At this rate, current scientific predictions put that summer somewhere between 2030 and 2050.
