[D66] Alaska's Sea Ice Has All Melted

[A.OUT]

https://www.ecowatch.com/alaska-sea-ice-melted-2639709052.html


sea ice
Alaska's Sea Ice Has All Melted
Jordan Davidson
Aug. 07, 2019 10:15AM EST
Climate

The ice near Alaska's shores has melted away entirely, leaving the
nearest ice shelf nearly 150 miles away, according to new satellite data
from the National Weather Service, as The Independent reported.

The historic Alaskan summer that saw record high temperatures, warmer
seas, and a once in a lifetime heat wave, has caused the sea ice to vanish.

The phenomenon does not mean that the ice won't return. It should return
in the fall as the Arctic moves away from the sun and the temperatures
start to drop again. Alaska has seen a complete ice melt before, as
recently as two years ago, but it has never vanished this early.

"It's cleared earlier than it has in any other year," said Rick Thoman,
a climate specialist at the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and
Policy, as Mashable reported.

The melting is not just confined to Alaska. The Arctic ice around
Greenland and Siberia has also seen record melting due to various heat
waves, record temperatures between May and July and a rash of wildfires
burning near the Arctic. This is all commensurate with the global
climate crisis.

"This fits in exactly with our expectations of long-term climate
change," said Zack Labe, a climate scientist and Ph.D. candidate at the
University of California Irvine, to Vice's Motherboard.

Alaska's northernmost city, Utqiaġvik, which sits above the Arctic, had
a record setting 25 straight days of temperatures above 40 degrees
Fahrenheit.

"July was by far the warmest month of record at Utqiaġvik," tweeted
Thoman. "Of the 20th warmest months, six have been just since 2010."

He also noted that the Bering Sea set record warm temperatures, which is
part of a troubling pattern of warming seas.

"Early summer (May-July) average sea surface temperatures in the
northern Bering Sea were the highest of record in the @NOAANCEIclimate
ERSSTv5 data," Thoman tweeted. "Each of the past six years is among the
warmest of record."

The warming seas caused a record early melt, which has a devastating
effect on local economies and residents who depend on the sea ice for
hunting and fishing to sustain them through the long winter, as EcoWatch
reported.

September sea ice has averaged a 13 percent decline each decade over the
last 40 years since satellite records began, but this decade's melt will
certainly push that average up. The rapid and severe changes around
Alaska and the Arctic as a whole have scientists alarmed.

"This is a decline of around 85,000 square km per year – equivalent to
losing an area of sea ice each year greater than the size of Scotland,"
said Ed Blockley, an expert on Arctic sea ice at the UK's Met Office, as
The Independent reported.

"I'm losing the ability to communicate the magnitude [of change]," said
Jeremy Mathis, a longtime Arctic researcher and current board director
at the National Academies of Sciences, to Mashable. "I'm running out of
adjectives to describe the scope of change we're seeing."

As this lack of sea ice becomes the new normal, local economies will
have to adapt and experts suggest people along the Alaskan coast start
moving to higher ground to escape flooding.

"At this time of year 'normally' (ie 30 years ago) there would be sea
ice in southern Alaska waters but, more importantly, sea ice across the
north coast of Alaska leaving only a narrow slot between ice and land
for ships attempting a northwest passage," said professor Peter Wadhams
from the University of Cambridge, to The Independent. "The latest
shrinkage is part of an Arctic-wide phenomenon which is leading towards
an ice-free summer as the future norm."

    "Without the ice, it's very difficult, if not impossible, to put
food on the table"https://t.co/gVsvjIfaKA
    — Greenpeace (@Greenpeace) May 7, 2018