Martin Leonhard of the East Greenland Ice-Core Project (EastGRIP) operates the snow blower that will lay a new snow floor for the winter storage tent at EastGRIP camp on August 9, 2022. EastGRIP is an international scientific station on the Greenland Ice Sheet, the second largest ice body in the world after the Antarctic Ice Sheet.
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The Arctic is becoming wetter and stormier as global climate change threatens fragile ecosystems and local communities, scientists said in an annual assessment of the region on Tuesday.
The researchers described how warmer air temperatures, melting sea ice, shorter periods of snow cover, increased wildfires and rising precipitation levels have forced the region’s wildlife and indigenous people to adapt.
2022 was the sixth warmest year on record in the Arctic, continuing a decades-long trend in which air temperatures in the Arctic have warmed faster than the global average, the report said. The Arctic’s seven warmest years since 1900 have been in the last seven years, and researchers pointed to a slew of signs that the region is undergoing a dramatic shift.
For example, a heat wave in Greenland in September caused severe ice melt for the first time in more than 40 years, the report said. Climate change has led to longer summers in Greenland and accelerated glacier retreat.
Scientists also noted that shipping traffic in the Arctic is increasing as sea ice decreases, with the most notable increase in traffic between ships traveling from the Pacific Ocean through the Bering Strait and Beaufort Sea.
The increase in shipping traffic opens up economic opportunities for new trade routes, but also causes potential damage to the ecosystem and Arctic communities. Scientists have predicted that the Arctic sea routes could be ice-free in summer by 2035.
Nearly 150 Arctic scientists from 11 countries developed the Arctic Report Card this year. The assessment “underscores the urgency to address the climate crisis by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and taking steps to be more resilient,” Rick Spinrad, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said in a statement.
Scientists warned that precipitation in the Arctic is increasing in all seasons and that these seasons are shifting. The changes have disrupted the lives of people, animals and plants that previously experienced traditionally cold and dry conditions.
The Arctic is warming nearly four times faster than the rest of the Earth, researchers discovered this year, a phenomenon that is causing sea levels to rise around the world. A rise of one foot global sea levels would have major impacts on coastal communities as sea level rise threatens to displace nearly 200 million people by the end of the century.
