The Arctic experienced its warmest summer on record this year due to human-caused climate change, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s latest Arctic Report Card.
“Its message is more urgent than ever,” said Rick Spinrad, NOAA administrator. “The time for action is now.”
The 18th annual Arctic Report Card detailed dramatic shifts in Arctic lands, weather and climate as a result of warming. Arctic sea ice extent was the sixth lowest on record. Nearly a million acres of undersea permafrost is at risk of thawing and releasing more greenhouse gasses and heavy precipitation broke records across the Arctic, contributing to natural disasters.
“Climate change is not something that’s coming down the pipe somewhere in the future. It is happening now,” said Daniel Schindler, an ecologist at the University of Washington. “Whether you’re talking about fish, or people or birds, there are real impacts that we need to deal with right now.”
The administration and its partners held a press conference on the new report at the annual American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco on Tuesday.
This year’s report centered Indigenous perspectives, including contributions by a network of coastal Alaska observers from Kotzebue to Kaktovik. The observers reported sea ice loss, warmer oceans and increasingly intense storms that contribute to flooding and erosion.
“These environmental changes have real impacts on community infrastructure, traditional activities and access and availability of subsistence resources,” said Roberta Glenn-Borade, who helps coordinate the network, known as the Alaska Arctic Observatory and Knowledge Hub.
Glenn-Borade, from Utqiagvik, said despite the challenges, she sees resilience in her region.
“There’s strength in being proud that we have survived as a people to make it this far, to be able to continually thrive in our region, living off the land and sea. And we don’t plan on stopping soon,” she said.
The annual report card examines physical and biological changes in the Arctic. Scientists from around the circumpolar north described a warmer, wetter, less frozen Arctic that is more prone to extreme climate events like this summer’s wildfires in Canada and flooding in Juneau.
A section on Alaska salmon also illustrated how climate change is impacting species differently. Western Alaska chum and chinook salmon have been on a long decline, dropping to record low returns, likely a result of warming oceans and rivers. Meanwhile, sockeye salmon have reached record highs in recent years.
“These numbers were neither predictable, nor would they have been believable a decade ago,” said Schindler, the ecologist.
Schindler said sockeye’s success could actually be caused by warming waters, which are helping to grow the populations of plankton that sockeye eat.
Researchers say tracking these changes in the Arctic is important because they serve as an early indicator of how climate change will affect the rest of the planet as it warms.
Kavitha George is Alaska Public Media’s climate change reporter. Reach her at kgeorge@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Kavitha here.
