The Arctic Is A Frozen Security Blanket For The World
To most Canadians, the Arctic is a faraway and mysterious place. It's a romantic piece of our history and identity. That wildness and cold is something we're proud of, but we don't know much about. It should play a bigger role in our consciousness. The Arctic makes up almost 40 per cent of Canada's landmass and two-thirds of our coastline.
Building a future in which people and nature thrive.
Building a future in which people and nature thrive.
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DC Productions via Getty Images
Baffin Bay, Baffin Island, Canada
Written by Paul Crowley, Vice President, Arctic
To most Canadians, the Arctic is a faraway and mysterious place. It's a romantic piece of our history and identity. That wildness and cold is something we're proud of, but we don't know much about.
It should play a bigger role in our consciousness. The Arctic makes up almost 40 per cent of Canada's landmass and two-thirds of our coastline. It is home to Inuit, who have lived there for thousands of years, and to remarkable species - like polar bears and narwhal, many of which live nowhere else on the planet.
With issues like climate change, offshore oil and gas development, and shipping, we often think of the Arctic as a sort of victim; as a place that needs saving. In reality, the frozen Arctic is a hero that provides countless benefits to Canadians and people around the world.
It's true. A frozen arctic is like a security blanket for the planet. It moderates weather, presenting consistent and predictable weather patterns from year to year. By reflecting heat off the Earth, it has kept sea levels at a low and consistent level for thousands of years. It protects us from runaway climate change by reflecting heat (called the albedo effect) and by trapping carbon in sea ice and permafrost.
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Unfortunately, climate change is altering those resilient features. This past summer was the hottest on record, and we saw the fourth lowest level of summer sea ice on record. (The top 10 lowest levels have all occurred in the last 10 years.) It's not just in the summer, last winter the Arctic experienced the record low for maximum sea ice extent.
The Arctic is melting. And with that, global stability is no longer on steady ground.
Melting ice and glaciers are causing sea levels to rise. This will continue to accelerate over the next 100 years, and sea levels are likely to rise by more than half a meter by the year 2100, forcing millions of people to relocate.
Think of it this way: The frozen Arctic acts as an air conditioner, moderating global ocean and air temperatures. As the Arctic warms, it will stop cooling down the rest of the planet.
And, a hotter ocean is expected to influence the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events.
As permafrost melts, it amplifies global warming. Permafrost contains organic matter that rapidly breaks down when melted, releasing enough carbon to double the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere.
Rising sea levels, increasingly frequent and intense extreme weather events, and unstoppable climate change feedback loops are the impacts of a melting Arctic, which will ultimately generate increasing instability around the world.
Of course, these global threats are in addition to the threats that face the people and species who live in the Arctic. They must adjust to less, and unpredictable, sea ice upon which they rely to hunt for food.
This is why saving the Arctic really means saving ourselves: The entire planet is, quite literally, depending on it.
Climate Change: 10 Beautiful Places Under Threat
Alaska(01 of09)
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The impacts of climate warming in Alaska are already occurring, experts have warned. Over the past 50 years, temperatures across Alaska increased by an average of 3.4°F. Winter warming was even greater, rising by an average of 6.3°F jeopardising its famous glaciers and frozen tundra.
Venice(02 of09)
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The most fragile of Italian cities has been sinking for centuries. Long famous for being the city that is partially under water, sea level rise associated with global warming would have an enormous impact on Venice and the surrounding region. The Italian government has begun constructing steel gates at the entrances to the Venetian lagoon, designed to block tidal surges from flooding the city. However, these barriers may not be enough to cope with global warming.
Antarctica(03 of09)
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The West Antarctic Peninsula is one of the fastest warming areas on Earth, with only some areas of the Arctic Circle experiencing faster rising temperatures. Over the past 50 years, temperatures in parts of the continent have jumped between 5 and 6 degrees F— a rate five times faster than the global average.A 2008 report commissioned by WWF warned that if global temperatures rise 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial averages, sea ice in the Southern Ocean could shrink by 10 to 15 percent.
The Great Barrier Reef(04 of09)
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The rapid decline of the world's coral reefs appears to be accelerating, threatening to destroy huge swathes of marine life unless dramatic action is swiftly taken, leading ocean scientists have warned. About half of the world's coral reefs have already been destroyed over the past 30 years, as climate change warms the sea and rising carbon emissions make it more acidic.
The Himalayas(05 of09)
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The world's highest mountain range contains the planet's largest non-polar ice mass, with over 46,000 glaciers. The mammoth glaciers cross eight countries and are the source of drinking water, irrigation and hydroelectric power for roughly 1.5 billion people. And just like in Antarctica, the ice is melting.
The Maldives(06 of09)
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An expected 2°C rise in the world’s average temperatures in the next decades will impact island economies such as the Maldives with extreme weather patterns and rising sea levels.
The Alps(07 of09)
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Over the last century, global warming has caused all Alpine glaciers to recede. Scientists predict that most of the glaciers in the Alps could be gone by 2050. Global warming will also bring about changes in rain and snowfall patterns and an increase in the frequency of extreme meteorological events, such as floods and avalanches, experts have warned.
The Arctic(08 of09)
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The Arctic is ground zero for climate change, warming at a rate of almost twice the global average. The sea ice that is a critical component of Arctic marine ecosystems is projected to disappear in the summer within a generation.
Micronesia and Polynesia(09 of09)
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Called the "epicenter of the current global extinction," by Conservation International, this smattering of more than 4,000 South Pacific islands is at risk from both local human activity and global climate change.
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