According to the 2022 Arctic Report Card, an annual report compiled by nearly 150 experts from 11 different nations and published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Arctic is undergoing a massive transformation that will have tremendous repercussions for the rest of the planet.
Even though 2022 was only the Arctic’s sixth warmest year on record, researchers found many signs that the region is becoming wetter and stormier, causing serious disruptions to local wildlife and ecosystems.
As a result of human-driven climate change, the Arctic has been warming four times quicker than the global average rate – with some parts of the region warming even faster, up to seven times the global average. In Greenland, for example, a heat wave in September caused the most severe melting of the island’s ice sheets in over forty years.
Sea ice helps regulate the planet’s temperature by influencing the circulation of the atmosphere and the ocean. It’s also critically important to the survival of wildlife such as polar bears and walruses. But melting ice sheets are causing rising sea levels across the globe, changing the way heat and water circulate in the oceans, and can even influence extreme weather events like heat waves and rainstorms.
If the Arctic continues to warm at this rate, the consequences for coastal communities and wildlife will be catastrophic. That’s why our SEEC members are fighting in Congress day in and day out to deliver clean solutions that will reduce pollution while we still have time to reverse these alarming trends. Will you chip in to support their work to preserve the Arctic as we know it?