Warming in the Arctic could lead to flooding affecting one quarter of the world’s population, substantial increases in greenhouse gas emissions from massive carbon pools, and extreme global weather changes, according to a new WWF report.
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© NASA/GSFC SVS
Animation: Yearly sea ice concentrations 1979 to 2005.
Click on image. (3.01 Mb)
Arctic climate change news
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09 Mar 2010
Arctic methane reservoirs 'leaking greenhouse gas'
A report in the journal Science says that the East Siberian Arctic Shelf is leaking methane to the atmosphere, in volumes "on par with previous estimates of methane venting from the entire world ocean", writes Nick Sundt in the WWF US Climate Blog.
Latest from the WWF Climate Blog
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09 Mar 2010
Alaska/Chukotka walrus and polar bear community exchanges
In early February, WWF and the US Fish and Wildlife Service partnered to facilitate community-based meetings between village conservation leaders from Chukotka, Russia and Alaskan communities along the Chukchi Sea coast. Although the people who live across the Chukchi Sea from each other are relatively close in miles, our Chukchi partners had to travel around the world to reach the other side and meet their neighbors for the first time. For WWF, this was also an opportunity to highlight the work of the Chukchi Umky Patrol Program we support in Russia, a grassroots effort to minimise negative polar bear human interactions. The Umky program has in addition cultivated efforts to eliminate poaching and manage a relatively new problem: walrus hauling out near villages in huge numbers.
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Suffering the greatest impacts
The Arctic is warming
Air temperatures in the region have on average increased by about 5°C over the last 100 years. Arctic sea ice extent has decreased by 14% since the 1970s. New areas of extensive permafrost thawing have developed.These changes are being driven by global warming gases, such as carbon dioxide, in the atmosphere.
The Arctic is extremely vulnerable to climate change, and major physical, ecological, and economic impacts are expected to appear rapidly. Arctic indigenous communities are already noticing some of these changes: warmer winters, earlier break-up of ice in the spring, and thinner ice year round. This traditional knowledge supports scientific evidence.
Computer models predict disappearance of summer sea ice
The results of computer modeling of future climate vary in detail, but all show a clear trend towards an overall warming in the Arctic, and a resulting melting of the sea ice. The models suggest that by 2080, or possibly earlier, arctic sea ice will completely disappear during the summer months.
Even an increase of 2°C could be too much.
A slight shift in temperature, bringing averages above the freezing point, will completely alter the character of the region. Where once ice covered the seas and permafrost stabilised the ground, open water and large tracts of marshy tundra will dominate. The consequences for arctic species will be severe.
This situation could extend to other parts of the Arctic should climate change go unchecked.
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Lilljehook Glacier, Svalbard in July 1906 and July 2005.
© Palais Princier de Monaco |
Shrinking glacier
Some of this shrinkage is due to natural climatic cycles; however, scientists now believe that human influence will lead to further temperature rises. If the upward trend in temperature continues in the future as it has done in the past 50 years, small glaciers on the west coast of Svalbard will be completely gone in the next 100 years.
What WWF is doing
WWF's International Arctic Programme provides up-to-date and reliable information on the effects of climate change in the Arctic, in order to stimulate policies and actions that combat climate change. We also support field-based projects in the Arctic where information on climate change is generated or collected.
And we assist in the development and implementation of adaptation strategies for species, ecosystems, and cultures in coping with a changing climate in the Arctic, particularly by contributing to the activities of the Circumarctic Protected Areas Network (CPAN) and the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA).
More information ...
Learn what the WWF office in your country is doing about climate change and how you can get involved:
SE (in Swedish) | DK (in Danish) | US | RU (in Russian) | FI (in Finnish) | CA | NO (in Norwegian) | UK | NL (in Dutch)
