Arctic temperatures are the warmest they’ve been in more than 10,000 years, according to a new University of Alberta study that highlights alarming rates of climate warming and thawing of permafrost in Northern Canada.
Arctic temperatures are the warmest they’ve been in more than 10,000 years, according to a new University of Alberta study that highlights alarming rates of climate warming and thawing of permafrost in Northern Canada.
“We’ve known that the last few decades have been very warm, but we’ve found that temperatures are on the order of two degrees Celsius warmer than any time in the last 10,000 years—that was a surprise,” said U of A environmental scientist Duane Froese, who is Canada Research Chair in Northern Environmental Change and a co-author of the study.
He explained that the rise in temperature has caused permafrost thaw across the Arctic to increase rapidly, destabilizing soil carbon, which may further accelerate warming by releasing increased amounts of greenhouse gases.
“This is potentially the new normal, and if it accelerates in the near future, it threatens to further amplify global climate change,” said Trevor Porter, the lead author on the paper who was a post-doctoral fellow supervised by Froese and is now an assistant professor at the University of Toronto.
Continue reading at University of Alberta.
Image via Getty Images.
