Climate Change: The Arctic Is Warming As Twice as fast As The Rest Of The Globe

In the annual Arctic Report Card written by the USA’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) showed record after record of high temperatures, low sea ice, shrinking ice sheets and glaciers with the Arctic warming as twice as fast as the rest of the globe.

The Arctic Report Card also shows long-term warming trends deepening and becoming more obvious, with a disturbing creep into seasons beyond summer, when the Arctic usually rebuilds snow and ice, this creep is extending unnatural heating into fall and winter.

The report also highlights that Arctic sea ice didn’t set a record for the annual minimum, but in October and November when sea ice normally starts growing back, it didn’t.

Snow cover in North America reached a record low for spring.

The average surface air temperature for the year ending September 2016 is by far the highest since 1900, and new monthly record highs were recorded for January, February, October and November 2016.

Thawing permafrost releases carbon into the atmosphere, whereas greening tundra absorbs atmospheric carbon. Overall, tundra is presently releasing net carbon into the atmosphere.