the disastrous consequences of the historically hot summer of 2023 in the Arctic

Melting ice, risk of floods and devastating storms or fires in Canada, the report from the American Atmospheric and Oceanic Agency paints an alarming picture of the rise in temperature in the Arctic, a region particularly subject to the effects of global warming.

If the international community committed, Wednesday December 13, in Dubai during the COP28 to gradually abandon fossil fuels, the main culprits of global warming, a new study reminds us of the urgency of making this commitment a reality. The summer of 2023 was the hottest ever recorded in the Arctic, at the North Pole.

This study published Tuesday, December 12 by the American Atmospheric and Oceanic Agency highlights that not only was 2023 the sixth warmest since 1900 in the Arctic, but above all that between July and September, the heat locally reached extremes. historic and very worrying levels, with an average temperature of 6.4 degrees Celsius. Despite more than average snowfall last winter, the mass of the Greenland ice sheet continued to decrease.

The impact on sea level rise

This development is not without consequences beyond the North Pole. According to IPCC calculations, the melting of the two ice caps, Greenland and Antarctica, contributes 20% to 25% to the rise in sea levels. The other causes are the expansion of water and the melting of mountain glaciers. Furthermore, due to this warming, the report points to an abnormally dry summer of 2023 in the north of the American continent, which fueled devastating fires in Canada, and a particularly wet year in Alsaka and Scandinavia favoring floods and storms.

To make matters worse, the North Pole is experiencing the “Arctic amplification” phenomenon. This region of the globe is warming two to four times faster than the rest of the world. The reduction in sea ice surface means that this area, by becoming less white and therefore darker, absorbs more and more energy and heat.

Furthermore, the possible thawing of permafrost, particularly in Siberia, also worries scientists. These peatlands, which are normally permanently frozen, could in fact thaw around 2040. However, they store nearly 40 billion tonnes of carbon. Double what is stored in European forests. If this carbon escapes into the atmosphere, it would further accelerate global warming across the planet. All this confirms that after the Dubai agreement, the challenge now arises to take action to really reduce carbon emissions in the next 10 years.