A new study predicted that the sea around the North Pole will become ice-free in the summer before 2050 even if temperatures will remain at 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit or 2 degrees Celsius.
Experts demonstrated the possible impact of different levels of carbon dioxide emissions on the Arctic sea ice in the North Pole which has negative results that will not be enough for the targets of the Paris Climate Agreement.
However, we can still control the frequency of the Arctic thaws and how long in the future but this could only happen if emissions are slashed, according to the team behind the study.
Climate-modelling
The use of climate-models help scientists discover the cycles of ice ages that happened hundreds of thousands of years ago to make projections for the coming years or centuries. They are an essential tool for understanding our planet's climate.
It was Dirk Notz, a climate scientist, from the University of Hamburg in Germany and his colleagues who conducted the climate-modeling study.
In a report by the Daily Mail, Dr. Notz said that reducing global emissions rapidly and substantially will keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius relative to pre-industrial levels. Nevertheless, the Arctic sea ice will still disappear eventually in summer even before 2050 which surprises the researchers.
Usually, the North Pole is covered with ice all-year-round, but each summer, that sea ice decreases before growing again in winter. This is a result of global warming because of the greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane.
If humans succeed in the future in reducing their emission levels rapidly, completely ice-free years in the North Pole are predicted to occur only occasionally. But this will not be the case if higher emissions of greenhouse gases will still continue.
Effects of lower sea ice levels
NASA recently reported that the maximum amount of sea ice this year was very low after the other three record-low measurements in 2015, 2016, and 2017. This could lead to many negative effects on the climate, weather patterns, plant and animal life, and indigenous human communities.
The melting of ice will not only contribute to the rising sea levels but also affect the hunting grounds and habitats for animals like polar bears and seals. In their study which was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the researchers used the most updated climate models to know the future effects of different carbon dioxide levels on the Arctic sea ice levels.
Moreover, the disappearing of ice can change the shipping routes and can affect the coastal erosion and circulation of the ocean. Claire Parkinson, a NASA researcher said that the Arctic sea ice covering the North Pole continues to decrease which is connected to the ongoing increase in temperature of the Arctic.
It is a two-way street. As the temperature rises, lesser ice is going to form and more ice is going to disappear. However, this also means that if there is less ice, the sun's incident solar radiation that is reflected off which contributes to global warming will also become lesser.
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