Researchers from South Korea and Canada said that the transition from the "white" to the "blue" Arctic, which the ice-free Arctic Ocean is often called, could happen by 2030, RIA Novosti reports.
The authors of the study argue that if the anthropogenic impact on the atmosphere remains at a high level, regular ice-free periods in the Arctic region may occur between 2035 and 2067.
However, according to Academician Vladimir Semenov from the Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences, this is debatable. According to the researcher, in summer, sea ice can temporarily melt for a month or two in the central part of the North Pole, but powerful long-term ice with a thickness of more than six meters, for example, near the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, does not melt even during the warmest month of September.
Semenov nevertheless admits that over time the ice may disappear there, but certainly not in the coming decades.
The absence of ice cover in most of the Arctic Ocean will reduce albedo (the ability of the surface to reflect sunlight) and change the radiation balance, which, in turn, will enhance the greenhouse effect.
The Arctic itself will suffer the most: it will open the way for coastal erosion, the destruction of settlements, and threats to animals whose life cycle depends on sea ice.
Alex Shishlo for Rough&Polished
