Monday December 9, 2024
Space.com —
The Arctic Ocean could have its first ice free day as soon as 2027, an alarming new study reveals.
Arctic sea ice has been melting at an unprecedented rate of more than 12% each decade, meaning we are racing towards the day when nearly all of its ice temporarily disappears.
This “ominous milestone for the planet,” will most likely happen within nine to 20 years after 2023 regardless of how humans alter their greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new study published Nov. 3 in the journal Nature Communications. And the most pessimistic projections predict it could happen as soon as three years’ time.
“The first ice-free day in the Arctic won’t change things dramatically,” co-author Alexandra Jahn, a climatologist at the University of Colorado Boulder, said in a statement. “But it will show that we’ve fundamentally altered one of the defining characteristics of the natural environment in the Arctic Ocean, which is that it is covered by sea ice and snow year-round, through greenhouse gas emissions.”