An increasingly warm Arctic, where temperatures rise twice as fast as in the rest of the planet and with an ice that melts at an alarming rate are the new norm, warns a global scientific study published on Tuesday.
In 2017, the winter ice around the North Pole suffered the largest reduction ever recorded, said the Arctic Report Card, published annually by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States, NOAA.
The year 2017 has been the second warmest since there are records of temperatures in the Arctic, adds this report compiled by 85 scientists in 12 countries.
The magnitude and rate of the melting of polar ice and the warming of the surface of the oceans in the 21st century have been unprecedented for at least 1,500 years, and probably much longer,”
quotes the report.
The consequences of this continuous warming are disastrous, affecting fishing in the east of the Bering Sea, compromising roads, housing and infrastructure due to the melting of permafrost and increasing the risk of fires.
The scientists presented the Arctic Report Card, which has been published since 2006, at the annual meeting of the United States Geophysical Union in San Francisco.