THE ARTIC COULD BE WITHOUT SEA ICE BY 2035
| Iceberg in Greenland. Credit mikhail79spb / stock.adobe.com. |
An international team of researchers has compared current sea ice conditions with their conditions during the last interglacial (the warm period about 127,000 years ago).
Pools of water form on the surface of Arctic sea ice during summer and spring, and these are important for knowing how much sunlight the ice absorbs and how much is reflected back into space.
The new Hadley Center model was used to observe Arctic sea ice during the last interglacial and indicates that the Arctic could be free of sea ice by 2035.
Dr Louise Sime, group leader of the Palaeoclimate group and BAS joint lead author, said that the prospect of sea ice loss by 2035 should focus all of our minds on achieving a low-carbon world as soon as possible.