Global Warming

Doomed Arctic Sea Ice

A new report says it is now too late to prevent the Arctic from becoming ice-free in summer, even with aggressive efforts to slash greenhouse gas emissions. “There’s nothing really we can do about this complete loss anymore because we’ve been waiting for too long,” said oceanographer Dirk Notz of Germany’s University of Hamburg.

The most recent UN-sponsored climate report suggested there would be no summertime ice surrounding the North Pole around 2050 if carbon emissions continue at high or moderate levels. But a new study published in Nature Communications says this will happen in the 2030s even with cuts.

Ocean Warming Record

Global oceans were warmer last month than any other May in records stretching back to the 19th century, the European Union's climate monitoring unit reported Wednesday. Sea temperatures at a depth of about 10 metres were a quarter of a degree Celsius higher than ice-free oceans in May averaged across 1991 to 2020, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.