The warming of the Arctic puts the world at risk of rising seas – US report

Dec 12 (Reuters) – The Arctic experienced the warmest temperature on record this year, contributing to wildfires and melting ice as the world is threatened by problems including rising sea levels, a report said. the US said on Tuesday.

Summer air temperatures in the Arctic are the highest since 1900 as the Arctic continues to warm twice as fast as the rest of the globe due to climate change. caused by humans, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) 2023 Arctic Report Card.

The annual report revealed several extreme weather and climate events with global impacts.

Warming in parts of northern Canada and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago coincided with below normal rainfall over those areas, resulting in a severe fire season there.

Greenland lost another 350 trillion pounds (158.7 billion metric tons) of weight from its ice, extending the rate of land ice loss since 1998.

“Arctic warming extends far beyond the region,” the report says, as the loss of sea ice contributes to sea level rise that threatens habitats. , transport and business in coastal towns.

Greenland’s ice loss this year was well below the 22-year average due to heavy snowfall, but temperatures remained a concern.

Summit Station, the highest point on the glacier, experienced melting only five times in the 34-year record, the report said. The cumulative daily melt fraction – a measure of the fraction that melts each day – approached the all-time record.

The report found that “climate instability caused by extreme Arctic temperatures will continue to affect North America and Eurasia,” said Brenda Ekwurzel, of the director of climate science at the Union of Concerned Scientists, who conducted climate research in the Arctic but did. do not contribute to the report.

The report also describes “clear evidence of the greening of the Arctic” because of warming temperatures, increased precipitation and melting ice that causes the removal of grasses and trees on grasslands and tundra.

The highest greenness was seen this year in the North American tundra and the lowest greenness in the Eurasian Arctic, it said. The so-called “peak tundra greenness” in the Arctic was found to be the third-highest in 24 years of research.

The green can accelerate climate change by releasing more carbon dioxide that was stored in the cold.

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Timothy reports on energy and the environment and is based in Washington, DC. His coverage ranges from the latest in nuclear power, to environmental regulations, to US sanctions and geopolitics. He was a member of three teams two years ago that won the Reuters best journalist of the year. As an avid outdoor cyclist. Contact: +1 202-380-8348

Daniel Trotta is a US National Affairs reporter, covering water/fire/drought, race, guns, LGBTQ+ issues and news in America. Previously based in New York, and now in California, Trotta has covered major American news stories such as the killing of Trayvon Martin, the mass shooting of 20 former students at Sandy Hook. Elementary School, and natural disasters including Superstorm Sandy. In 2017 he was awarded the NLGJA award for excellence in gay media. He was previously reported in Cuba, Spain, Mexico and Nicaragua, covering top world stories such as the stabilization of Cuban-US relations and the Madrid train bombing by radical Islamists.