US Climate Agency Sees 'Dramatic Changes' in the Arctic

Washington, 11 Dec (ONA) --- The Arctic tundra has stored carbon dioxide in the frozen ground and in trees for thousands of years, but now a new report has found that it is releasing more planet-warming CO2 into the atmosphere than it absorbs.

The reason for this, according to the report by the US climate agency NOAA, is rising temperatures and more frequent forest fires. The report was co-authored by 97 researchers from 11 countries.

It said that over the past 20 years, wildfires in the northern polar region have released an average of 207 tons of carbon dioxide into the air annually.

In addition, climate-damaging methane is constantly escaping from melting permafrost into the atmosphere.

"Our observations now show that the Arctic tundra, which is experiencing warming and increased wildfire, is now emitting more carbon than it stores, which will worsen climate change impacts," said NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad. "This is yet one more sign, predicted by scientists, of the consequences of inadequately reducing fossil fuel pollution."

This year (2024), land temperatures were the second warmest since 1900, and the past nine years have been the nine warmest on record in the Arctic. It is a "dramatic change," the agency said.

Plants, wildlife and humans are being forced to adapt more quickly to a "warmer, wetter and more uncertain world," it said. The increasing rain, for example, often falls on snow, so that the entire surface is covered by a layer of ice – making it difficult for people to move around and for animals to find food.

The number of migratory reindeer in the tundra has declined by 65% over the past two to three decades according to the NOAA report, due to summer heat and increasing precipitation.

--- Ends/Khalid