Climate change in the Arctic is happening faster than anywhere else on the planet.
Climate change in the Arctic is happening faster than anywhere else on the planet. Sea ice is melting, while glaciers are calving, leading to more icebergs in the ocean.
Sea ice in the Arctic is melting at an alarming rate, and this development is a clear indicator of global climate change. Rebekka Jastamin Steene, a PhD fellow at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at UiT, is currently aboard the Statsraad Lehmkuhl teaching the student course Arctic Future Pathfinders. The ship was originally scheduled to spend two months traversing the Northwest Passage, which is only possible due to the reduced sea ice.
"The temperature is rising two to five times faster in the Arctic than in the rest of the world, and the change is closely linked to what is happening with the sea ice," Steene explains.
The Albedo Effect Amplifies Ice Melting
One of the main reasons for the rapid ice melting is the so-called albedo effect. When ice melts and is replaced by open water, the ocean absorbs more solar energy, which in turn leads to warming of both the water and the air.
Read More: UiT The Arctic University of Norway
Photo Credit: Pexels via Pixabay
