FAQ: Your Climate Questions Answered

If we look at the 16 Earth system tipping points, nine out of those 16 are in the polar regions, and five of these are in red and are likely to tip below 2℃. The tipping points are the control centre of our earth systems, it is clear that the polar regions are the early warning systems that we should

The cost of extreme weather events during 2020 was about $190 billion globally (Swiss Re, 2021).

By 2300, the Arctic breakdown is expected to contribute to total economic costs of >$66 trillion (aggregated discounted net present value) under mitigation levels consistent with national pledges at the time of research (Yumashev et al., 2019).

Estimates suggest that the loss of Arctic sea ice, together with reductions in snow cover over the boreal land areas, will exacerbate global warming by 25-40% as the darker Arctic surfaces on water and land absorb more solar energy (Duan, Cao, and Caldeira, 2019; Pistone, Eisenman, and Ramanathan, 2014).

There is about 40% less sea ice coverage at the end of the melt season compared to the 1980s.

Since 1979 the Arctic has been losing about 80,000km^2 of sea ice each summer – a total loss of 3.49 million km^2 of sea ice. This is nearly twice the area of Germany, France, Spain and Italy combined.

The Arctic is warming four times faster than the rest of the globe (Rantanen et al., 2022).

The Arctic is the control centre of our global climate system. Arctic melt affects sea levels, global temperatures, ocean currents, precipitation patterns etc.

The Arctic is an ocean, covered by a thin layer of perennial sea ice and surrounded by land. (“Perennial” refers to the oldest and thickest sea ice.) Antarctica, on the other hand, is a continent, covered by a very thick ice cap and surrounded by a rim of sea ice and the Southern Ocean.

USA, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia and Sweden all have land and territorial claims.

Malaspina Glacier in Alaska.

Glaciers and icebergs, are frozen freshwater. In fact, the glaciers and icebergs in the Arctic make up about 20% of Earth’s supply of freshwater.