An international team of scientists said it’s found a link between the melting of Arctic sea ice and weather in far-flung parts of the planet.
What’s happening?
Weather teleconnections are one way climate scientists can make sense of what can seem to be atmospheric chaos. Teleconnections are “significant relationships or links between weather phenomena at widely separated locations on Earth, which typically entail climate patterns that span thousands of miles,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s definition of the term.
A study done by a team of scientists from Spain, Norway, France, Canada, the U.K., and the U.S. has revealed how the melting of sea ice in the Arctic is contributing to the changes in weather patterns in places like California and portions of Europe.
“There is much scientific disagreement about the remote effects of Arctic sea ice loss,” lead author of the study, Ivana Cvijanovic, said in a summary posted to SciTechDaily. “So far, many studies have focused on the long-term effects, on a scale of centuries. Others have investigated the response to sea ice loss with modeling setups that artificially impose heat to melt the sea ice, potentially affecting the simulated response.”
Cvijanovic noted that some studies have been altering sea ice conditions in both the Arctic and Antarctic concurrently, making it challenging to separate their individual effects. This new study was published in the journal Communications Earth and Environment.
“In our study, we have developed a methodology to assess the impact of Arctic ice loss without adding any heat fluxes, and we focused on the impacts developing within a few decades,” Cvijanovic added.
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What Cvijanovic and the rest of the researchers found was the decline of Arctic sea-ice was linked to drier winters in the southwest region of the U.S. and wetter winters over the western Mediterranean.
Cvijanovic says the changes in weather patterns over the last few decades show “some striking similarities to the patterns simulated in our study — especially events such as the Californian drought of 2012-2016.” That drought was one of the most severe in California’s history.
Why is the link between the loss of Arctic sea-ice and weather patterns in different parts of the world important?
The vanishing sea ice means the world is warming faster, disrupting the world’s weather patterns in addition to raising sea levels.
Rising sea levels could dramatically alter the map of the United States by the end of this century. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says sea levels will rise by 1.4 to 2.8 feet by 2100 and even a rise of over six feet is possible.
New research has revealed another worrisome consequence caused by the melting of Arctic sea ice. Microscopic organisms living under the ice that play an important role as the basis of every marine food web are in danger.
What’s being done about the decline in Arctic sea-ice?
A Dutch startup has been working on a way to restore polar ice caps that have been rapidly melting. By pumping water from below the Arctic ice and spreading it across the surface, the company hopes to enhance ice thickness while creating a bright, high-albedo layer that would keep the surface colder.
Keeping our planet from continuing to overheat will require a wholesale move away from dirty energy sources and massive shift to renewable sources. Installing solar panels and using heat pumps and induction stoves can help curb the amount of heat-trapping gases being released into the atmosphere.
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