National Arctic Climate Restoration Initiative
The Arctic is warming at an unprecedented rate, resulting in a dramatic reduction in Arctic sea and land ice and snow and thawing of permafrost. Warming of the Arctic affects weather patterns globally and in the Northern Hemisphere in particular.
The Secure The Future 2100 scientists have written a White Paper – The National Arctic Climate Restoration Initiative (NACRI) – a proposal to the Biden Administration intended to catalyze a new federal government initiative that would advance multi-agency coordinated efforts to fund research to help preserve and restore the Arctic climate.
Read the Executive Summary. and learn how to join other climate scientists from various fields in endorsing NACRI.
This NACRI proposal expands on an earlier paper, Arctic Ice Loss Threatens National Security: A Path Forward.
IMAGES FROM OUR PROJECTS
Rapid loss of Arctic Ocean sea ice is increasing the absorption of solar radiation, causing the Arctic to warm 2-3 times the global average. By 2035, the Arctic ocean is estimated to be entirely void of sea ice during the summer. New sea ice formed during the winter will be too thin for maximum protection against solar radiation.
Photo courtesy of: NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center
Methane Bubbling in waters off the East Siberia Arctic Shelf. 400 billion tons of methane lies under the Arctic Ocean sea-bed: the global warming equivalent of 344,00 billion tons of CO2 or 10 times the amount of CO2 currently in the atmosphere.
Photo courtesy of: Tomsk Polytechnic University
Greenland’s ice sheet contains 2.9 million cubic kilometers (695.8 cubic miles) of Ice: Enough to raise global sea level by 7 meters (23 ft).
Photo by Stan Farkas, Secure The Future 2100
By 2100, Greenland’s ice loss could add 0.3 meters (1 ft) to global sea level rise.
(Søndre Strømfjord, Greenland)
Photo by Stan Farkas, Secure The Future 2100
Melting of Greenland’s ice sheet creates deep river canyons spilling over the edge of the ice sheet or pouring down a Moulin shaft to the base of the ice sheet.
Photo courtesy of Andrew Sole, University of Sheffield
Greenland’s melt-water pours down Moulins to the base of the ice sheet up to 3 kilometers (9,800 ft) deep, enhances glacier flow by reducing ice sheet friction, and then flows to the sea.
Photo courtesy of Matt Hoffman, Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico
Deep river canyons carved into the surface of Greenland from meltwater with Arctic and global warming. In 2019 Greenland lost a record 586 billion tons of ice from it’smelting ice sheet: enough to cover California in more than 1.25 meters (4 ft) of water.
Image courtesy of: Ian Joughin, University of Washington
Permafrost is frozen ground that resides up to 1,650 meters (5,413 ft) deep. It covers about 25% of the land of the Northern Hemisphere and stores twice as much carbon as that in our atmosphere. Permafrost is rapidly thawing: emitting CO2 and methane (~ 84 times more potent than CO2) that further adds to global warming.
(Yukon Delta)
Photo curtesy of: Fred Broerman, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Permafrost can contain large amounts of ice incorporated during the last glacial period - 12,000 years ago. As the permafrost thaws, the ice melts, and the ground collapses greatly enhancing the quantity of greenhouse gases being emitted to the atmosphere.
(Near the Arctic Ocean coastline)
Photo courtesy of Jeffrey Kerby; Dartmouth College
Methane held under ice waiting to be released when the ice melts. About 20% of Arctic land permafrost is vulnerable to abrupt permafrost thaw producing thermokarst lakes as ground subsides and fills with water rapidly decomposing organic matter and releasing greenhouse gasses to the surface and the atmosphere.
Photo curtesy of NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio Data Visualization of Permafrost Status, NASA Observatory
Eight major river basins flow into the Arctic Ocean warming and lowering the salinity and potentially affecting global ocean circulation and climate.
(Lena River Delta, Russia)
Courtesy of Landsat 7 image, NASA
The mass melting of Himalayan glaciers from global warming could threaten water availability for 100’s of millions of people in Asia.
Image Courtesy of CNN
Up to 630 Million people live on land projected to be below annual flood levels by 2100. South Asia and South East Asia are especially vulnerable
(Mekong Delta, Vietnam)
Photo by Stan Farkas, Secure The Future 2100
The rise in CO2 concentration reduces the nutritional value (protein, vitamins, minerals) of most plants - i.e., nutrition collapse. Food crops such as maize, rice, wheat, potatoes, and soybeans are affected. Nutrition collapse could worsen malnutrition and global food security including production, availability, and price stability.
(Nepal)
Photo courtesy of Chris Steele-Perkins, FAO
