Global Warming

Arctic - Annual Report Card

A new “report card” on how climate change is affecting the Arctic reveals that permafrost is now thawing more quickly, as polar sea ice melts at its fastest pace in 1,500 years.

“2017 continued to show us we are on this deepening trend where the Arctic is a very different place than it was even a decade ago,” said NOAA arctic researcher Jeremy Mathis.

He told the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union that what’s happening in the Arctic is affecting the rest of the planet.

Earlier studies found that changes in Arctic sea ice and temperature can alter the jet stream — a major influence on weather across North America, Europe and Asia.

“The Arctic has traditionally been the refrigerator to the planet, but the door of the refrigerator has been left open,” Mathis said.

Decrease in Himalayan glaciers

Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology and National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee have found that the number of glaciers had gone down from 103 to 97 and a total area of 41.2 ± 10.5 km2 (18.1 ± 4.1%) lost in a short span of 35 years- between 1976 and 2011.

Smaller glaciers were observed to have lost more of their surface area than large glaciers, making them more sensitive climate change indicators.

The study warns of a long-term decline of water resources and impending flash floods due to the glacial lake outburst as warming climate may accelerate the glacial recession in the area. The researchers studied changes to glaciers in the Baspa basin, western Himalayan region and have also determined the factors affecting this change.

Indian Himalaya is home to about 9675 glaciers, most of them unexplored. Only two glaciers in the Indian Himalaya have been monitored properly and their mass balance studied- Chhota Shigri and Dokriani.