Although there is a general consensus among models that rising CO2 will drive warming and continued ice melt into the future, IPCC models failed to predict the current level of
rapid sea ice reduction.
Not exact matches
Volume, in contrast, is crucial in determining the vulnerability of Arctic
sea ice to
rapid future
reductions (since thin
ice is much more prone to react strongly to a single warm summer, making single very - low
sea -
ice summers more likely), and the thickness of the
ice determines the exchange of heat between ocean and atmosphere.
Some mechanisms for that are hypothesized, e.g. methane release from polar regions, increased melting of Greenland leading to stopping the Gulf Stream,
rapid reduction of Arctic
sea -
ice and its positive feedback, collapse of Antarctic
ice shelves, loss of the Amazon, large volcanoes, asteroid impacts, unexpected solar variation.
With increasing atmospheric CO2, however, the
reduction of
sea ice in the central Arctic Ocean is more
rapid and disproportionately high in comparison to its margin.
The IPCC 2007 Fourth Assessment of climate change science concluded that large
reductions in the emissions of greenhouse gases, principally CO2, are needed soon to slow the increase of atmospheric concentrations, and avoid reaching unacceptable levels.However, climate change is happening even faster than previously estimated; global CO2 emissions since 2000 have been higher than even the highest predictions, Arctic
sea ice has been melting at rates much faster than predicted, and the rise in the
sea level has become more
rapid.
This meeting explores the recent,
rapid Arctic
sea ice reduction.
Sea ice extent for September 2007 was 4.3 million square kilometers — a
reduction of more than 40 % from the 1980s and a
rapid decline to more than 20 % below the previous record minimum.
The iconic image of
rapid Arctic climate change is the dramatic
reduction in
sea ice.