North Pole: record heat and temperatures at their highest in 115 years
Environment — di Andrea Barolini
A report by the American agency Noaa raises a new alarm: “We are recording record heat, retreating ice and an ever thinner snow cover”.
North Pole: record heat and temperatures at their highest in 115 years
A report by the American agency Noaa raises a new alarm: “We are recording record heat, retreating ice and an ever thinner snow cover”.
Air temperature in the Arctic region continues to rise, reaching a new record during 2015. This is confirmed by an analysis from the Arctic Report Card, a division of the American agency Noaa (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), according to which "levels this high have never been recorded within the Arctic Circle since temperatures began to be measured systematically, that is, 115 years ago".
Record heat: average temperature +3 degrees above 1900 levels
In particular, measurements taken between October 2014 and September 2015 indicate that, compared with the beginning of the twentieth century, the average temperature within the Arctic Circle has risen by 3 degrees Celsius.
At the United Nations World Climate Conference in Paris, Cop 21, two weeks of debate focused precisely on the limit that must be placed on the rise in average global surface temperature. In the end, it was decided to stay "as far below 2 degrees Celsius as possible", while aiming to "get as close as possible to 1.5 degrees". Because, as was repeatedly stated in the French capital, "going beyond that would mean condemning the planet to catastrophe": assertions and figures that make the Arctic situation all the more alarming, given that, up there, the thresholds set by governments have already been far exceeded.
Ice sheet at its smallest since 1979
Noaa adds that, during the last winter, the ice sheet reached its maximum extent on 25 February, two weeks earlier than normal. Registering "the smallest area since mapping began", that is, since 1979.
But that is not all: snow cover is also recording a dramatic decline, equivalent to 18 per cent every decade (from the 1980s to the present day). "The Arctic region," explained Richard Spinrad, chief scientist of the American agency, in a press release, "is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the planet. This represents a threat not only to the climate but also to global security and the global economy." Furthermore, life is becoming increasingly difficult for the mammals and fish living within the Arctic Circle: "The decline in sea ice," the report's authors emphasise, "is radically changing the habitat of walruses, which use the ice sheet for mating, finding food and sheltering from storms and predators."