In this episode we hear the wonderful Jason Sole talk about the arctic amplification which happens in Greenland.
Arctic amplification is having a dramatic, observable effect on the north. Greenland’s vast ice sheet, for example, began to experience ludicrously early melting just this year, with at least 12 percent of it thawing out by April thanks to sustained, summer-like temperatures.
In addition, the amount of anomalously warm days in the region is literally off the charts. As study after study keeps revealing, even the most pessimistic estimates about the Arctic’s immediate future are turning out to be optimistic when the real data is taken into account. A shrinking temperature difference between the region and areas further south, thanks to Arctic amplification-relating warming, would cause the jet stream to slow down. This jet stream deceleration would cause it to kink and bend erratically, perhaps allowing far warmer air masses to move upwards over the Arctic Circle.
The Arctic has everything going against it. Not only do warm ocean currents preferentially head towards it, but it also undergoes a phenomenon called arctic amplification wherein the lack of sea ice is allowing the Sun to heat the sea there without impediment.
Now, a new nature communications study has revealed for the first time that the effects of Arctic amplification have reached Greenland, which contains the world’s second-largest ice sheet. If it was all to melt, it would raise sea levels by 7 meters (23 feet).
Moreover Iceland has recently discovered a very rapid way of converting carbon dioxide onto a solid, stable form that can be kept forever. This is a major scientific breakthrough and is a very viable means of carbon sequestration. Moreover we can now make very accurate predictions about climate change.
Things are looking up.
By Alex Mitchison
Links: http://www.iflscience.com/environment/arctic-amplification-caused-greenland-to-set-melting-records-in-2015/ , https://search.proquest.com/openview/ee4d363fcaeff3e1e70af462ca85df0b/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=105732 , https://phys.org/news/2016-06-greenland-arctic-amplification.html