Video - Arctic Emergency: Scientists on Melting Arctic Ice

In this video climate scientists address how rising temperatures in the Arctic are contributing the melting sea ice, thawing permafrost, and destabilization of a system that has been called "Earth's Air Conditioner". They make the point that global warming is here and is impacting weather patterns, natural systems, and human life around the world - and the Arctic is central to these impacts.

Scientists featured in the film include:

- Jennifer Francis, PhD. Atmospheric Sciences Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University.

- Ron Prinn, PhD. Chemistry TEPCO Professor of Atmospheric Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

- Natalia Shakhova, PhD. Marine Geology International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska-Fairbanks.

- Kevin Schaefer, PhD. Research Scientist, National Snow and Ice Data Center.

- Stephen J. Vavrus, PhD. Atmospheric Sciences Center for Climatic Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison

- Nikita Zimov, Northeast Science Station, Russian Academy of Sciences.

- Jorien Vonk, PhD. Applied Environmental Sciences Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University

- Jeff Masters, PhD. Meteorology Director, Weather Underground

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Implications of Arctic Heat: Less Ice and More Global Warming

The Arctic continues to warm and ocean sea ice continues to retreat at an alarming pace. This has dramatic implications that are both global and local. Arctic ice has been both retreating and thinning in volume for four decades.

As reported in the Ecologist, the latest study by Stroeve et al. from the University College London, was published in Geophysical Research Letters. This study shows that the ice-free period is increasing by 5 days every decade. In some regions of the Arctic, the autumn freeze is now up to 11 days later every decade.

The research examined satellite imagery of the Arctic for the last 30 years. They found that the ice is melting and the increasing exposure to sunlight means that greater quantities of energy are being absorbed by the Earth.

"The extent of sea ice in the Arctic has been declining for the last four decades", said Professor Stroeve. "And the timing of when melt begins and ends has a large impact on the amount of ice lost each summer."
The Arctic is now warmer now than it has been for 40 millennia. This has a cascade of negative impacts which are both local and global.

Globally a warmer Arctic translates to less sea ice which means less reflection of sunlight and more absorption which translates to more heat. This is known as the albedo effect which is defined as the amount of solar energy (shortwave radiation) reflected from the Earth back into space. It is a measure of the reflectivity of the earth's surface. The lower the albedo the more we can expect planetary temperatures to increase. Locally this warming threatens the animals that depend for their existence on a stable cycle of seasons.

The rate of acceleration suggests that the polar ocean could be entirely free of ice in late summer in the next four decades. When ice loss is factored from the perspective of the albedo effect, this will further accelerate global warming.

© 2014, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Alaska's Record Breaking Heat in January Offers More Evidence for a Dramatically Warmer Arctic

While the continental US was being slammed with a succession of cold spells and winter storms in January, Alaska was experiencing some of the hottest temperatures ever recorded for the month. Temperatures were as much as 40°F (22°C) above normal. The all-time warmest January temperature ever observed in Alaska was tied on January 27 when the temperature peaked at 62°F (16.7°C) in Port Alsworth.

The NASA map (above left) shows the temperature anomalies in Alaska for January 23–30, 2014. Those areas which experienced higher than average temperatures compared to the 2001–2010 average for the same week are highlighted in red. The map is based on data from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite.

The record heat and rain caused rivers to rise and avalanches which buried highways under as much as 100 feet (30 meters) of snow. The warmer temperatures were caused by a persistent ridge of high pressure off the Pacific Coast.

These findings are consistent with the general warming trend being observed in the Arctic. A recent University of Waterloo study of more than 400 lakes of the North Slope of Alaska, found less ice and a shorter ice season in 2011 compared with 1950. Over the same time-span, the winter ice season has been reduced by almost one month (24 days). Lakes in the region froze almost six days later and broke up about 18 days earlier in the winter of 2011 compared to the winter of 1950. The ice has also gotten 38 centimeters thinner over that period.

© 2014, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Save the Arctic from a "Death Spiral"

In last 30 years, we’ve lost as much as three-quarters of the floating sea ice cover at the top of the world. Satellite images reveal that the volume of that summer sea ice in the Arctic has shrunk so fast that scientists say it’s now in a ‘death spiral’. Due to human activities, primarily the burning of fossil fuels, the Arctic may soon be ice free in the summer for the first time in over 800,000 years.

This will be devastating for polar bears, narwhals, walruses and other species that live there. It will also have profoundly destructive consequences for people all around the world as the Arctic helps to regulate global weather patterns and as a consequence has a powerful impact on global agriculture.

It is a tragic irony that the dirty energy companies that are causing the Arctic to warm at twice the rate of the rest of the world, are also looking to plunder oil and other resources that lie underneath the disappearing ice.

Arctic ecosystems are among the most fragile on Earth and according to recently declassified government documents, dealing with oil spills in the freezing waters is “almost impossible.” If there is one thing we have learned it is that spills are unavoidable and in the Arctic this will be far more destructive than anywhere else on the planet.

We cannot allow the Arctic to be exploited for its natural resources. We cannot allow the loss of the indiginous people's way of life by giant fishing companies. They have fished sustainably in the Arctic for thousands of years.

As part of its efforts to defend the Arctic, Greenpeace is asking people to sign a petition to create a global sanctuary around the North Pole, ban offshore drilling and other destructive industries in the Arctic. Thirty years ago they launched a similar campaign to protect the Antarctic. They were instrumental in helping to create a world park around the South Pole, now they are asking for people to come together to do the same for the Arctic Ocean.

Help Greenpeace to ban destructive industries in the Arctic and create a global sanctuary around the North Pole dedicated to peace and science. Join millions of people around the world and sign the petition to protect the Arctic.

Click here for more information.

© 2014, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Talk - The Race to the North Pole: Climate Change and Biodiversity in Canada

The race to the North Pole: climate change and biodiversity in Canada will take place on Wednesday, December 11, 2013, at the University of Ottawa, Biosciences Complex – RM 140, 30 Marie Curie St., Ottawa, Ontario. The reception will take place at 6 pm and the presentation will commence at 7 pm. Parking is available in parking lot V (In front of Marion Hall). The Faculty of Science at the University of Ottawa is pleased to invite National Capital Region community members to this special evening with Department of Biology professor Jeremy Kerr (BSc ’93 – Biology).

Jeremy Kerr was recently appointed as the University Chair in Macroecology and Conservation Biology. Professor Kerr will give an exhilarating talk entitled

“The race to the North Pole: climate change and biodiversity in Canada.”

The evening will be an opportunity to learn from one of the University of Ottawa Faculty of Science’s rising stars.

For more information contact Kyle Bournes:
Phone: 613-562-5800 ext. 7946
E-mail: kbournes@uOttawa.ca

To RSVP click here.

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Video - Richard Branson on the Need to Protect the Arctic

In this video, Richard Branson, explains why we all have to do everything within our power to protect the Arctic.
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Video - The Arctic is Under Threat from Shell and Gazprom

The fossil fuel companies Shell and Gazprom have ambitious plans to exploit the Arctic's oil and gas reserves. Scientists have made it clear that to avoid the worst impacts of a hot planet (ie 6 degree temperature increase) we must leave the vast majority of carbon reserves underground. Arctic drilling increases global warming and imperils Arctic ecology. We know that drilling for oil and gas inevitably leads to spills. To make matters worse Gazprom's old and outdated drilling equipment present an elevated level of risk. Drilling in the Arctic will devastate the region's fragile ecosystem which is already suffering from a warming world.

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Video - The Global Implications of Rapid Climate Change in the Arctic

Paul Beckwith is a part time professor at the University of Ottawa and a post graduate studying and researching abrupt climate change, with a focus on the arctic.


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Geothermal Heating Accelerating Greenland's Ice Melt

Everyone who follows the issue of melting ice knows that Northern ice is melting, but a new study shows that it is not only melting from above due to global warming, it is also melting from below. The fact that the ice is melting from above and below has important implications for scientific models.

The international research initiative IceGeoHeat led by the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences published their research in Nature Geoscience. The continental ice sheets play a central role in climate. GFZ scientists Alexey Petrunin and Irina Rogozhina have created a model which calculates ice melt from geothermal forces.

The Greenland lithosphere (the crust and upper mantle of the earth) is 2.8 to 1.7 billion years old and is only about 70 to 80 kilometers thick under central parts of Greenland. Presently the Greenland ice sheet loses about 227 gigatonnes of ice per year and contributes about 0.7 millimeters to the currently observed mean sea level change of about 3 mm per year.

© 2013, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Video - Massive Costs Associated with Arctic Methane

Global warming has been melting the permafrost for decades and this is releasing methane, a potent greenhouse gas. The implications for the economy are staggering as associated costs are expected to be in excess of 60 trillion. To put this number in perspective the global economy was valued at 70 trillion in 2012.

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Video - Unlocking Methane in the Permafrost is a Global Warming Time Bomb

Methane has been locked in the permafrost of the far north for thousands of years, but it is being released because of the thaw associated with global warming. The permafrost has been thawing rapidly over the last three decades and if this trend continues the consequences could be catastrophic. Referred to as a methane pulse, vast amounts of this destructive GHG could be released into the atmosphere. This will profoundly exacerbate global warming and may push us pass irreversible tipping points.

Methane is one of the worst greenhouse gases because it stays in the atmosphere more than 20 times longer than carbon dioxide. More methane equals more warming and the release of even more methane.

For more information see NBC's series called "Changing Planet" which explores the impact that climate change is having on our planet. Information in this series is provided by the National Science Foundation.

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The Race to Exploit the Arctic's Resources Ignores the Costs

Rather than just look myopically at the economic benefits of melting Arctic ice we need to calculate the economic impacts. As explained in a recent report, the disastrous economic impacts of a warming Arctic are not being adequately investigated. Neither the World Economic Forum (WEF) in its Global Risk Report nor the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its World Economic Outlook recognizes the potential economic threat from changes in the Arctic.

Melting Arctic ice is exposing vast mineral deposits as well as 30 percent of the worlds as yet untapped gas and 13 percent of untapped oil. We can also expect an ice free Arctic to give way to a number of new shipping routes. Lloyd’s of London has estimated that in the next decade we could see $100 billion investment the Arctic.

While many are eager to exploit the North's resources, we are slow to assess potentially catastrophic impacts.

We need to explore the link between sea-ice retreat and the strength and position of the jet stream. This relationship is thought to increase extreme winter and spring weather including the protracted cold spell in Europe in 2013. It is dangerously shortsighted to see the economic benefits of changes to the Arctic without an integrated analyses.

In 2012, noting that the far north is increasing in strategic importance and citing the need for informal dialogue among world leaders, the WEF launched its Global Agenda Council on the Arctic. While the authors of the report welcome this effort they clearly make the point that more action is needed. They suggest the WEF should invest in rigorous economic modelling and ask world leaders to factor the economic costs beyond resource extraction. They further suggest that the WEF should encourage innovative adaptation and mitigation plans.

We need more such discussions and further research to understand the global implications of changes taking place in the Arctic.

We need more economic models that incorporate feedback loops and tally the costs associated with the impacts of global warming on the Arctic.

© 2013, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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White Paper - Oil Spills in Arctic Waters

This White Paper is a compilation of research on oil spills in ice-covered Arctic waters and it offers suggestions for future study. It is subtitled, "An Introduction and Inventory of Research Activities and USARC Recommendations."  The authors identify research entities in governmental, nongovernmental, industrial, and private organizations, and provide an inventory of research projects.

Given that much work is currently in progress, they provide only a snapshot in time, and an introduction to the topic. While an in-depth evaluation of the research results, a prioritization of research and development gaps, and a critical examination of the connection between research and oil spill response capability are undoubtedly important topics, they are beyond the scope of this effort.

The authors hope that their foray into this subject encourages others to address these critical topics. Finally, the US Arctic Research Commission (USARC) closes this paper with recommendations for additional research on the topic of oil spills in icecovered Arctic waters.

Click here to access the White Paper (PDF). 

© 2013, US Arctic Research Commission.

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More Evidence that Arctic Warming is an Economic and Ecological Time Bomb

Although our understanding of the Arctic is far from complete, there is a growing body of evidence that suggests melting Arctic ice will free massive deposits of methane locked in the permafrost of the far north. This represents an unprecedented danger both economically and ecologically. The latest evidence for this ticking time bomb was presented in a report by Gail Whiteman, Chris Hope & Peter Wadhams presented in the journal Nature.

Melting Arctic ice is expected to have far reaching impacts well beyond the far north. One of the most grievous threats comes from the release of methane trapped in the permafrost beneath the East Siberian Sea. The authors estimate that the cost of a massive methane release off the northern coast of Russia alone is $60 trillion. This is a startling figure when we consider that the value of the global economy in 2012 was estimated to be $70 trillion.

“As the amount of Arctic sea ice declines at an unprecedented rate, the thawing of offshore permafrost releases methane. A 50-gigatonne (Gt) reservoir of methane, stored in the form of hydrates, exists on the East Siberian Arctic Shelf. It is likely to be emitted as the seabed warms, either steadily over 50 years or suddenly. Higher methane concentrations in the atmosphere will accelerate global warming and hasten local changes in the Arctic, speeding up sea-ice retreat, reducing the reflection of solar energy and accelerating the melting of the Greenland ice sheet. The ramifications will be felt far from the poles.”

The release of methane will rapidly accelerate the rate at which the earth is warming and therefore the rate of global flooding, ocean acidification, altered ocean and atmospheric circulation. As a corollary we can expect more extreme heat, droughts and storms and their concomitant impacts on agriculture.

The authors of the study ran many scenerios using the PAGE09 integrated assessment model which calculates the impacts of climate change and the costs of mitigation and adaptation measures.

All their statistical modeling came to the same conclusion:

“There is a steep global price tag attached to physical changes in the Arctic.”

Even in the low-emissions case, the mean net present value of global climate-change impacts is $82 trillion without the methane release (methane pulse), an extra $37 trillion, or 45 percent is added.

The researchers found that the "methane pulse will bring forward by 15–35 years the average date at which the global mean temperature rise exceeds 2°C above pre-industrial levels."

It is clear that melting Arctic ice will have major implications for our oceans and our climate. The affects will be felt by all nations on earth, but some of the world's poorest nations will be hardest hit.

The full costs of climate change transcends economics and augurs an apocalyptic future that threatens civilization itself.

© 2013, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Happy Canada Day?: Melting Arctic Ice and Flooding

As we look back on the year that was this Canada Day, we are faced with two historic environmental disasters: Melting Arctic ice and floods in Alberta. It appears likely that the largest Arctic ice melt in recorded history may be changing weather patterns including the worst floods in Alberta's history.

In June, flooding killed four people and forced more than 100,000 out of their homes in Southern Alberta. Over the period of 24 hours 100mm of rain fell in many areas of Alberta, with some locations in the foothills seeing almost 200mm. The heavy rains, combined with the melting snow pack in the mountains caused widespread flooding along the Bow and Elbow rivers. The Bow and Elbow rivers saw flows that were five to ten times the normal rate.

Very slow moving weather systems significantly increased the amount of rain which fell on Southern Alberta which may have been a result of changes in the jet stream attributable to Arctic ice melt. According to a study by Rutgers University, the jet stream has slowed down by about 14 percent since the 1990s.

There have been a range of anamolous weather events which have been tied to the changes in the jet stream.

Calgary, Alberta's capital and the province's largest city, was hit hard by the flooding which and cut power to homes and businesses. It may take weeks or even months to restore power to the city.

In addition to loss of life and massive dislocation of people, there have been tremendous damages caused byo the floodding. The cost will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The 2013 flood has already eclipsed financial losses of the 2005 flood which cost an estimated $383 million.

Ironically, the fossil fuel companies that cause climate change were hit hard by the flooding. Many of the oil companies based in Calgary have been forced to close due to the flooding.

© 2013, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Video - O' Canada Stand Up for the Arctic and Oppose Climate Change

This 2011 video from the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences (CFCAS) makes the point that Canada is truly an Arctic nation. The Arctic makes up over 40 percent of our landmass, and includes nearly three quarters of Canada's coastline. It's an essential part of our national identity and our climate. Sadly since this video was made climate change has continued to significantly undermine the Arctic. In 2012 we saw levels of Arctic ice melt that are unprecedented in recorded history.

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Video - Beautiful Arctic: A Look at the Awe Inspiring Beauty We Stand to Lose

While the warming of the Arctic has very destructive global repercussions, there is also an unspeakably catastrophic loss of what can only be described as awe inspiring beauty. What kind of civilization would we be if we allowed our avarice to lay waste to such natural splendor?

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Video - Arctic Warming: Risks for Methane Emissions

Dr. Ronald Prinn, TEPCO Professor of Atmospheric Science at MIT shares the result of his project measuring the rates of change in atmospheric concentrations of trace greenhouse gases. After more than 30 years of research, he and his colleagues recently noted an unexplained increase in methane concentrations. He outlines the risks posed by this finding in his discussion of "Arctic Warming: Risks for Methane Emissions, Sea Ice Loss, and Ocean Overturn." This talk is part of Cambridge Forum's After Copenhagen: Global Climate Change Conference.


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Video - Warming Arctic, Changing Planet

On November 12, 2012 The Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Earth Institute, Columbia University and Quebec Government Office presented an exciting discussion about the effects of climate change on the Arctic. Experts highlighted how Arctic sea ice, climate, marine mammals, tundra, and indigenous communities have been affected by and are adapting to climate change. In addition, each expert addressed how these effects of climate change go far beyond the polar bears and may even impact you.

Moderator:

Andy Revkin, Senior Fellow for Environmental Understanding, Pace University; Blogger, DotEarth

Speakers and Panelists

• Julie Payette, Canadian Astronaut, Scientific Delegate, Quebec Government Office 
• Natalie Boelman, Lamont Assistant Research Professor, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University 
• Kevin Griffin, Professor, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University 
• Igor Krupnik, Anthropologist, Arctic Studies Center, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Stephanie Pfirman, Professor and Chair, Department of Environmental Science, Barnard College 
• Pierre Richard, Research Scientist, Fisheries and Oceans Canada 
• Bruno Tremblay, Associate Professor, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, McGill University

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Video - I Love Arctic (Greenpeace)

Climate change impacts the Arctic more than almost anywhere on earth and to make matters worse the life forms that live there may be more susceptible to the toxic environment created by global warming (for more information click here).  Join the call for a global sanctuary in the uninhabited area around the North Pole.

Thousands of people will come together on April 20 to form human banners spelling out I (heart) Arctic. Together we will call on our political leaders to protect the Arctic from activities that put this fragile environment at risk, such as oil drilling and industrial fishing.

Become a part of this global mobilisiation in cities from Buenos Aires to Bangkok and from Oslo to Yellowknife: join or organise a human banner in your city.

What happens in the Arctic affects us all - that's why we are coming together on April 20 to take joint action across the globe!

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