Feedback mechanisms, we learned in Module 3, can accentuate and dampen change and they are incredibly important to our climate system. This article published in the New York Times brings to light exactly how impactful feedback loops can be especially in the Arctic. Scientists who have traveled to the northern rim of Alaska’s Brooks Range every year for the last 30 years, found last May to be the historic of them all. Scientists explain “the artic is warming faster than anywhere else in the world as seawater replaces sea ice, painting the Arctic Ocean blue and fueling a dangerous feedback loop” (Urban, Deegan, 2016).

The biologist that study the Arctic every May explain much like Module 3 did that white sea ice reflects the sun’s energy back into space through the albedo effect. As ice melts however, the dark Arctic seawater now absorbs the heat and as a results warms the earth’s temperature. The problem with the past spring that they observed was that snow melted two weeks earlier than it ever has in the past and the lakes thawed 10 days earlier. Thunderstorms were among the strangest observation for these scientists who explain that this type of storm used to be rare in the Arctic but now they are frequent. Lightning sparks fires and releases carbon from the permafrost.

We have learned in the last three Modules that there a lot of controversy surrounding climate change. This article explains an unknown. These scientists added nutrients to an Arctic stream to mimic what happens when the tundra thaws and what they found was a rare moss and new set of insects. The scientists explain “the surprises [with the addition of nutrients] pose serious risks because we can’t prepare for what we don’t know, we can no longer be satisfied to watch and document these changes, we must predict and prevent them” (Urban, Deegan, 2016). They bring about such a true statement, a scary one, but true.

Reference:

Urban, Mark, Deegan, Linda. T-Shirt Weather in the Arctic. New York Times. 5 February 2016. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/06/opinion/t-shirt-weather-in-the-arctic.html