Second of three reports by UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released Monday in Japan warns that Arctic sea ice is declining faster than models projected.
Spencer Wynn / Toronto Star
Arctic sea ice cover and volume are declining faster than
models projected, warns John Stone, the lead author on the polar regions chapter
of the new UN report on climate change.
The world is warming up and the impact of climate change is already being seen across the globe, an authoritative new UN climate report says.
But in this part of the world, which is barely out of the clutches of a long
and wicked winter, the report sounds like a conundrum.
Make no mistake, the world is warming up, especially the Arctic, said John
Stone, an IPCC lead author and adjunct professor at Carleton
University.
“What we have experienced this winter is just weather,” said Stone. “It may
have been cold in large parts of North America, but Alaska was unusually warm
and Norway and other Scandinavian countries have been abnormally warm,
too.”
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Most of Europe has also had warm weather this year, he added.
“When you are looking at climate change, you just cannot look at one region
of the world. You’ve got to look
at the whole world together and you can’t look at one year, you have to look
at the trend.”
The past 150 years indicate that climate has changed, he said.
The second of three reports by the United Nations
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was released in Japan on Monday. It
warns that governments are ill-prepared for a warming world and if action is not
taken soon, risks could become unmanageable.
The impact and adaptations in polar regions are a big part of the
report.
Stone, the lead author on the polar regions chapter, pointed out that warming
there has already led to a decrease
in Arctic sea ice cover and volume. “It is declining faster than any of our
models projected,” he said, adding that it suggests “to some of us that climate
change may well be accelerating.”
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The Arctic, said Stone, could be clear of sea ice in summer within the next
few decades, “rather than the end of the century as was previously estimated. .
. ”
It may be very hard for Arctic communities to adapt, he said.
The accelerated rates in permafrost thaw, loss of coastal sea ice and sea
level rise are forcing some communities, particularly in Alaska, to relocate,
said Stone.
“It is an expensive and culturally difficult exercise.”
The report says, without ambiguity, that there are risks to the “health and
well-being of Arctic residents, resulting from injuries and illness from the
changing physical environment, food insecurity, lack of reliable and safe
drinking water, and damage to infrastructure, including infrastructure in
permafrost regions.”
In an emailed statement, Environment Canada said that through the Arctic
Council scientists are engaged in “climate change adaptation activities that
advance our understanding of the range and extent of impacts of climate change
in the Arctic region.”
It also said that an online adaptation information portal will be set up to
help people there understand and adapt to climate change.
The IPCC report also sheds light on the new reality of property insurance
versus extreme weather, especially in North America, where companies have
experienced increases in severe weather damage claims in the past couple of
decades.
(The flooding
in southern Alberta in June 2013 was the costliest natural disaster in
Canadian history, with $6 billion in losses, according to a January report by
Munich Re, the world’s largest reinsurance firm.)
Meanwhile, Monday’s IPCC report also warned of decreased crop yields, losses
due to forest fires and coastal erosion in North America.
“Climate change is more than just an environmental issue,” Ian Bruce, science
and policy manager with the David Suzuki Foundation, said. “This is an economic
and security issue that will impact everyone from the biggest cities to the
smallest towns.”
In September, the first part of the IPCC report warned
that Canada will continue to see more warming than the global average and
extreme weather events will be more frequent and more intense.
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