In the “Arctic report card”, which is published annually by the organization Arctic Program, the status of climate change in the far north is taken. Almost 150 researchers have contributed to the report, many of them from Norwegian institutions. Here are some of the main findings: The Arctic continues to warm more than twice as fast as the rest of the globe The sea ice is getting thinner Shipping traffic continues to increase The average temperature was the sixth highest in 100 years – This is a similar result to several years now. You can see that the changes are progressing faster, says senior researcher Jarle Werner Bjerke at NINA (Norwegian Institute for Natural Research). Jarle Werner Bjerke at the Norwegian Institute for Natural Research. Photo: NINA Scientists who raise the alarm about climate change hardly come as a bombshell for most people. And many may get tired of the gloomy predictions. It’s still worth keeping your eyes open, says Bjerke. – It is important that people, and especially decision-makers in society, are confronted with the facts again and again. – You can, for example, compare it to the pandemic – no one reacted negatively to the daily infection reports. – At the same time, it is understandable that it can be difficult to see the nuances year after year, when it is the same overall message, he admits. Biological attacks on nature For Norway, perhaps the most significant finding is that the ice cover is getting thinner in our areas, Bjerke believes. And this leads to a vicious circle where the melting only goes faster and faster. – The sea has become warmer, and the ice is moving further north. The white ice lies like a mirror and reflects the sunlight, while the dark sea absorbs the sun’s heat. At the same time as the ice-free sea emits heat to the surroundings. Lauvmark, such as these frost gauges, have previously caused great destruction in Finnmark. This is considered a direct consequence of climate change. Photo: Ole Petter Vindstad / Norwegian Arctic University/UiT In the future, nature north of the Arctic Circle may also face more biological attacks than before, says Bjerke. – Lauvmakken is a good example. But there may also be other insects that increase in population in line with a warmer climate. Since the turn of the millennium, the caterpillars have attacked and partially destroyed at least 10,000 square kilometers of birch forest in a belt in northern Norway, Sweden and Finland. Here are three things you can do to limit global warming Facts about climate change in the Arctic The warming in the Arctic is happening about twice as fast as the global average. One of the reasons is that the melting of snow and ice gives a darker surface and thus increases the absorption of solar energy in these areas. The extent of the sea ice has decreased sharply in the last 30 years, and the ice is disappearing faster than the climate models predicted. The ice is also thinner, and there is now less of the compact and massive perennial ice. Ice-dependent species such as seals, polar bears and ice gulls have had problems as a result of the warming. Ongoing and expected climate changes in the polar regions in the coming decades affect, and will continue to affect, the climate system both inside and outside the polar areas. Source: Norwegian Polar Institute The bright spots Although it is dark in the Arctic at the moment, not everything is dark. Bjerke’s NINA colleague, senior researcher Hans Tømmervik, is also credited in the report. He says that the Svalbard reindeer are among the species that have had it easier as a result of recent climate change. – In Svalbard, they get an earlier spring than before. This makes it easier for the reindeer to calve. – Ten years ago there was a lot of ice, and far fewer survived, says Tømmervik. The Svalbard reindeer do well with less snow in the spring. Here it is about to graze in the company of a grouse. Photo: Nicolas Lecomte / Norwegian Polar Institute Ice, at least not now. The polar ice has not even reached Spitsbergen so far this autumn, according to the Meteorological Institute. 20 years ago it lay all the way down to Bjørnøya. Another bright spot is that some of the oceans around the North Pole actually produce more ice in winter than ever. This is shown by research published in Nature. The Kara Sea and the Laptep Sea north of Russia are often referred to as “ice machines” in the Arctic. They have just passed the peak level of their ice production, the researchers’ calculations show. In the future, it will probably decrease. But there is no real explanation for why the ice disappears in some places and grows in other places. But overall, the sea ice around the North Pole will continue to shrink steadily. The North Pole may be completely ice-free as soon as the year 2040. The seasons are changing The report clearly shows that the seasons in the Arctic are different than they were in the recent past. Winter, for example, has become shorter, and both begins and ends at different times. Similar changes are also seen south of the Arctic Circle. In Oslo, for example, it is expected that the winter weather will perhaps end before the end of the century. – The atmosphere can hold more moisture when it is warmer. Then there will often also be more precipitation, explains senior researcher Bjerke. – This autumn we have experienced fine weather in the north, while there has been a lot of rainfall in the south. In other winters it has been the opposite. Rain in Kautokeino in January has so far been very unusual. – But with increasingly mild winters, it will be possible to rain almost every year in Kautokeino and other areas that until now have had a typical inland climate. Another temperature record in Svalbard: – Marked by people who live up there
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The Arctic is heating up faster and the ice around the North Pole is retreating – news Troms and Finnmark
