A shocking new study says that sea ice in the Arctic could completely disappear through September each summer if average global temperatures increase by as little as 2 degrees Celsius and climate conditions continue to worsen.
Ice recedes from June to September and then in September, it begins to grow again in a seasonal cycle but this time we are seeing almost no ice.
Most likely, September Arctic sea ice will effectively disappear at between approximately 2 and 2.5 [degrees] of global warming. Yet, limiting the warming to 1.5 [degrees] under the Paris agreement may not be sufficient to prevent the ice-free Arctic.
Using a new statistical method of 21st-century climate projections, the researchers found that there is at least a 6 percent probability that the sea ice disappears if temperatures rise 1.5 degrees Celsius.
That bumps up to a 28 percent probability if temps rise 2 degrees Celsius.
A study published in April showed that Earth’s glaciers are melting much faster than previously thought, losing 369 billion tons of snow and ice each year, more than half of that in North America.
A lack of summer sea ice is of great concern for Arctic wildlife, such as polar bears and seals, which rely on the sea ice for food and raising their young.
Reference- Fox News, Nature Communications Journal, The Guardian