The Arctic Is Warming Faster Than at Any Point in the Past 1,500 Years

“Unprecedented.”

David Goldman/AP

The Arctic is warming faster than at any point in the past 1,500 years, according to a federal government report released Tuesday. The report, led by scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, also found that maximum winter sea ice coverage in the Arctic was the smallest ever recorded.

The peer-reviewed annual report card, presented at the American Geophysical Union fall meeting, compiled the work of 85 scientists from 12 nations.

“The Arctic is going through the most unprecedented transition in human history,” said Jeremy Mathis, director of NOAA’s Arctic Research Program, during a press conference.

In 2017, maximum winter sea ice area, measured each March, was the lowest ever observed.  Permafrost, the layer of soil that remains frozen in the Arctic, also thawed faster than ever before.

A section of the report based on geological records found that sea ice is now declining, and temperatures warming, at a faster rate than at any other time in the last 1,500 years.

2017 was the second warmest year in the Arctic since 1900, when instrumental recordkeeping began. The all-time record was set last year. While fewer records were shattered this year than in 2016, the Arctic shows no sign of returning to the reliably frozen region it was decades ago, the report says.

The Arctic is warming about twice as rapidly as anywhere else on Earth, affecting people in the region, the fish and wildlife they depend on for food, and their environment.

“The Arctic has traditionally been the refrigerator of the planet,”  Mathis said. “But the door to that refrigerator has been left open.”

Overall, the Arctic has reached a “new normal,” the report finds, characterized by declines in sea ice cover, winter snow cover, and the mass of the Greenland Ice Sheet and Arctic glaciers.  The Arctic Ocean is also warming.

“The unprecedented rate and global reach of these changes highlight the pressing need to prepare for and adapt to the New Arctic,” the report says.

 

More Mother Jones reporting on Climate Desk

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate