Apr 24, 2024 02:30 AM
https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth...it-recover
EXCERPTS: . . . Only a decade ago, on summer nights across the coast, the sun would glide ever so slightly over the ocean, dusting its ice floes in golden light. Yet today, much of this sea ice is nowhere in sight. And scientists are increasingly alarmed that it may never come back.
"Antarctica feels very distant, but the sea ice there matters so much to all of us," Ella Gilbert, a polar climate scientist at the British Antarctic Survey, told Live Science. "It's a really vital part of our climate system."
Until recently, Antarctic sea ice fluctuated between relatively stable summer minimums and winter maximums. But after a record minimum in 2016, things began to shift. Two record lows soon followed, including the smallest minimum ever in February 2023 at just 737,000 square miles (1.91 million square kilometers).
As winter began in March of that year, scientists hoped the ice cover would rebound. But what happened instead astonished them: Antarctic ice experienced six months of record lows. At winter's peak in July, the continent was missing a chunk of ice bigger than Western Europe.
"We all thought that the minimum was as bad as it was going to get; it was 2023, not 2070," Ariaan Purich, an Antarctic climate researcher at Monash University in Australia, told Live Science. "So when winter came, we were in disbelief."
Now, in 2024, the sea ice extent has reached another near-record low: just 766,400 square miles (1.985 million square km) on Feb. 20.
A profound "regime shift" has taken place in the Antarctic, and climate scientists are racing to understand what will come next.
"When you push any part of the climate system, it has ripple effects that are felt all over the world — not necessarily immediately, but many years down the line," Gilbert said. "So by pushing the system more and more and more, we're making those ripples bigger and bigger. And eventually, we're all going to feel them."
[...] Despite the accelerated response caused by reverse albedo feedback, scientists are careful not to call the Antarctic sea ice decline an irreversible tipping point...
[...] In the meantime, the obvious prescription for our ailing planetary systems still applies: urgent and deep cuts to global CO2 emissions, Siegert said. “The only way forward is to decarbonize, and decarbonizing as soon as possible means we’ll not see the worst possible outcomes.” Siegert said... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: . . . Only a decade ago, on summer nights across the coast, the sun would glide ever so slightly over the ocean, dusting its ice floes in golden light. Yet today, much of this sea ice is nowhere in sight. And scientists are increasingly alarmed that it may never come back.
"Antarctica feels very distant, but the sea ice there matters so much to all of us," Ella Gilbert, a polar climate scientist at the British Antarctic Survey, told Live Science. "It's a really vital part of our climate system."
Until recently, Antarctic sea ice fluctuated between relatively stable summer minimums and winter maximums. But after a record minimum in 2016, things began to shift. Two record lows soon followed, including the smallest minimum ever in February 2023 at just 737,000 square miles (1.91 million square kilometers).
As winter began in March of that year, scientists hoped the ice cover would rebound. But what happened instead astonished them: Antarctic ice experienced six months of record lows. At winter's peak in July, the continent was missing a chunk of ice bigger than Western Europe.
"We all thought that the minimum was as bad as it was going to get; it was 2023, not 2070," Ariaan Purich, an Antarctic climate researcher at Monash University in Australia, told Live Science. "So when winter came, we were in disbelief."
Now, in 2024, the sea ice extent has reached another near-record low: just 766,400 square miles (1.985 million square km) on Feb. 20.
A profound "regime shift" has taken place in the Antarctic, and climate scientists are racing to understand what will come next.
"When you push any part of the climate system, it has ripple effects that are felt all over the world — not necessarily immediately, but many years down the line," Gilbert said. "So by pushing the system more and more and more, we're making those ripples bigger and bigger. And eventually, we're all going to feel them."
[...] Despite the accelerated response caused by reverse albedo feedback, scientists are careful not to call the Antarctic sea ice decline an irreversible tipping point...
[...] In the meantime, the obvious prescription for our ailing planetary systems still applies: urgent and deep cuts to global CO2 emissions, Siegert said. “The only way forward is to decarbonize, and decarbonizing as soon as possible means we’ll not see the worst possible outcomes.” Siegert said... (MORE - missing details)
