“What happens in the Arctic doesn't stay in the Arctic. The fate of Greenland is the fate of Miami.”
2015 was the hottest year in recorded history and a similar pattern is being followed in January 2016, February 2016. March 2016 seems to be following the similar suite.
But what happened in the Arctic Sea just adds to the danger to the world. Just as 2015 ended, the Arctic sea levels have hit a new low. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Centre, the ice covered 5.607 million square miles in 2016 of the Arctic Sea. That’s 5000 miles less than the old record set in 2015.
This fall in the ice is 431,000 square miles less than the 30-year average. This year's ice didn't break the record by much, but it's "an exclamation point" on a longer-term trend, said Nasa scientist Walt Meier, who helped calculate the data.
It was so warm that the Barents Sea was "pretty much close to ice-free for almost the whole winter, which is very unusual," Mr Meier said.
Julienne Stroeve, a scientist at the data centre, said winter temperatures over the North Pole were – 8.88°C warmer than normal, while other parts of the Arctic ran -16°C to -11°C warmer than normal.
Mark Serreze, data centre chief, said: "I have never seen such a warm, crazy winter in the Arctic.The heat was relentless."
The repercussion of Arctic ice melting can cause major changes in the jet stream across the Atlantic Ocean which will in turn bring in the climate change and affect the rest of the world.
The new report reveals "just the latest disturbing data point in a disturbing trend wherein climate changes are happening even faster than we had forecast," Michael Mann, Pennsylvania State University climate scientist, said.
Originally published in HuffingtonPost
Image Credit: NASA
