Arctic Warming Nearly Four Times Faster Than Earth as a Whole, Study Finds
August 12, 2022
Scientists have been underestimating how rapidly the Arctic is heating up compared to the Earth as a whole, according to a new study which found the region is growing hotter nearly four times faster than the global average.
Researchers at the Finnish Meteorological Institute in Helsinki found that between 1979, when advanced satellite measurements of global temperatures began, and 2021, the icy northern region warmed 3.8 times faster than the rest of the planet—nearly twice the rate that had long been estimated.
"We were frustrated by the fact that there's this saying that the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the globe," Mika Rantanen, the lead author of the study, told the New York Times. "But when you look at the data, you can easily see that it is close to four."
Rantanen and his colleagues began examining the issue after heat waves in Siberia drew international attention.
A year ago, smoke from wildfires in the region drifted to the North Pole for the first time in recorded history.
More
= new reply since forum marked as read
