“Warning Cry From the Arctic”: Reuters

Rapid Arctic warming poses dire consequences for the planet. Record-breaking heat – 38 degrees Celsius, or 100 Fahrenheit – is reported from the Arctic, with dry peatlands and conifers that serve as tinder for wildfires. “That extreme heat is fanning the unusual extent of wildfires across the remote, boreal forest and tundra that blankets northern Russia,” reports Reuters. “Scientists fear the blazes are early signs of drier conditions to come, with more frequent wildfires releasing stores of carbon from peatland and forests that will increase the amount of planet-warming greenhouse gases in the air.” One researcher explains how such heat patterns create a “vicious cycle” of more dry fuel, more fires, more ice melt, more carbon emissions. Fires strip away peat and vegetation that normally protect the permafrost. Reversal of the warming trends require decades of reduced reliance on fossil fuels, starting immediately. – YaleGlobal

“Warning Cry From the Arctic”: Reuters

The Arctic region, enduring record temperatures, is heating twice as fast as the rest of Earth, fueling a cycle of warming, melting ice, wildfires, emissions
Matthew Green and Emma Farge
Thursday, June 25, 2020

Read the article from Reuters about record temperatures reported in Siberia.

Read the Arctic Report Card on record temperatures from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

graph showing mean land surface air temperatures rising faster over the last century than for the globe overall
Warming Arctic: Mean annual land surface air temperature anomalies for Arctic land stations north of 60° N, shown in blue, and global land stations, in red – the Arctic had few stations, before 1940. (Source: NOAA and CRUTEM4 dataset)

Four images showing seasonal patterns for near-surface air temperature in the Arctic
Tinderbox: Seasonal anomaly patterns for near-surface air temperatures (in °C) relative to the baseline period 1981-2010 in autumn 2018 (a), winter 2019 (b), spring 2019 (c), and summer 2019 (d) (Source: NOAA/ESRL)

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