Heidi Sevestre wants to believe that the announced disappearance of the Arctic sea ice in summer will play the role of an electric shock. After the publication on Tuesday of a scientific article confirming that temperatures will now prevent sea ice from forming there during the warmest months by the 2030s, the French glaciologist explains to BlazeTrends, Thursday June 8, how the planet and its occupants will suffer the consequences of this great upheaval in the northernmost ocean in the world. A message of warning but also of hope, while humans hold the solution to global warming: drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Franceinfo: What are the direct and indirect consequences of the disappearance of sea ice in summer in the Arctic?
Heidi Sevestre: This pack ice plays a key role in stabilizing the climate. From the climate of the Arctic of course, but also from the global climate. Because it is white, this crust of ice acts as a gigantic natural mirror that reflects back into space the heat that the Arctic receives during the summer. And he gets a lot of them, since it’s daylight there 24 hours a day! By returning this heat, this pack ice is doing us an extraordinary service. When it disappears, it gives way to a very dark ocean which does precisely the opposite: it absorbs heat. We then enter a vicious circle: the more the sea ice melts due to global warming, the more this global warming accelerates.
Locally, the result is that the ice is also melting faster in Greenland. This is not sea ice, but land ice. This melting directly contributes to rising sea levels around the world. Greenland alone contains enough to raise the level of the oceans by six to seven meters, which is enormous. Also locally, this warming of the Arctic is melting the permafrost – or permafrost –, which in turn releases greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. And I haven’t even mentioned the consequences for the Arctic flora and fauna, which depend on this pack ice!
Finally, since the sea ice contributes to regulating the climate on the planet and in particular in the northern hemisphere, its melting is reflected here, in France, by an increase in the frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events. Late frost, early frost, periods of extreme cold or periods of extreme heat, very dry periods and very wet periods… We are directly affected by these upheavals. We are also at the origin, since it is human activities, through our use of fossil fuels, which cause this global warming.
Is the Arctic sea ice doomed to disappear in summer, regardless of the efforts that may be made in the future to reduce our emissions?
One of the authors of the article, Dirk Notz, put it this way: “It is the first pillar of the climate that is collapsing.” Even if we were on the right track to limit the rise in global temperatures to +1.5°C (target set by the Paris Agreement), this would not be enough to save the sea ice during the Arctic summer. But the article does not say that everything is over, on the contrary.
“This article is the biggest alert we have ever received.”
Heidi Sevestre, glaciologistat BlazeTrends
It’s true that when we study the climate, we see warning signs every day, but never in my career have I seen such a strong scientific article. He tells us that it is certainly too late for the sea ice, but we can still save other ecosystems and other pillars of our climate.
The survival of all humanity depends on our ability to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. For more than thirty years, scientists have been repeating: “Watch out, we’re going to lose the Arctic”, “watch out, it’s going to happen”, “watch out…” What is happening today tells us that we are not on the right trajectory and, even if there are things being done to reduce our emissions, our strategies are not good. We are far too far from where we should be in terms of goals. This study should wake us up.
We must reduce our use of fossil fuels, but won’t the melting of the sea ice, on the contrary, allow the oil and gas giants to develop their activities in this highly coveted region?
Some countries, some economic players mistakenly believe that “less sea ice equals fewer problems”. This is a simplistic vision of the situation that does not take into account everything that we have just mentioned: regions of the world will become uninhabitable, populations will be displaced, in particular by the rising waters, our agriculture will be permanently affected … Moreover, we must not believe that navigating in the Arctic will become a cakewalk. I live there a good part of the year and what I saw this year terrified me. The sea ice had a hard time forming and for a few months we had storms every other day which made it impossible to live on Svalbard on land. I can’t even imagine what it looked like on board a boat!
Climate chaos will be more pronounced in this area. In addition, the pack ice “absorbs”, in a certain way, the energy of the waves. The ships that will come to look for oil and gas in the Arctic will face icebergs – mainly from the melting ice of Greenland – storms that prevent all visibility and waves of 20 or 30 meters that nothing will stop. Those who think this is an opportunity will understand that nobody has an interest in seeing the pack ice disappear.
