The warming of the planet is a slow moving event and it has taken one hundred years to gain 1 C but the loss of sea ice in the Arctic is happening very quickly and is accelerating and, importantly,for the man in the street in the Northern hemisphere, it is affecting the weather.
The summer ice has declined 40% so far and forecasters are looking at an ice free summer by 2030 but we will not need to wait that long for really marked climate changes to be seen.
The UK has seen massive flooding events in 2012/3 and again in 2015. The USA has had dramatic swings of weather from being exceptionally warm to very cold.
As the ice reaches 50% decline the strong link between violent extreme weather events and ice loss will become more apparent and it is these damaging weather events that disrupt people lives and the economy that make climate change real to the man in the street.
This NOAA report explains the current state of ice loss.
It is no longer something that hurts polar bears or flood some poor people in remote parts of the world but reaches right into big cities and wealthy economies.
The summer ice has declined 40% so far and forecasters are looking at an ice free summer by 2030 but we will not need to wait that long for really marked climate changes to be seen.
The UK has seen massive flooding events in 2012/3 and again in 2015. The USA has had dramatic swings of weather from being exceptionally warm to very cold.
As the ice reaches 50% decline the strong link between violent extreme weather events and ice loss will become more apparent and it is these damaging weather events that disrupt people lives and the economy that make climate change real to the man in the street.
This NOAA report explains the current state of ice loss.
It is no longer something that hurts polar bears or flood some poor people in remote parts of the world but reaches right into big cities and wealthy economies.
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