Too late now to save Arctic summer ice, climate scientists find
GuardianJun 06, 2023
Study: Arctic Could Be 'Ice-Free' in a Decade
The Facts
Researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder have claimed that the Arctic Ocean could become ice-free — meaning less than 1M square kilometers (386.1K miles) — on a late August or early September day in the late 2020s or early 2030s.
In comparison, the Arctic had a minimum September coverage of 3.3M square kilometers in recent years. An ice-free Arctic would also represent 20% less than the region's minimum ice cover in the 1980s.
The Spin
Left narrative
Unfortunately, this is not the first study to predict an ice-free Arctic. Researchers have warned about this possibility for years, and now that it's on the horizon, the world has warmed too quickly to completely stop it. As the ice melts, allowing the Sun to warm more ocean water, climate change-induced extreme weather patterns are likely to worsen — this is why we must continue to work towards lowering carbon emissions as well as adapt to the incoming effects of mass ice melting.
Right narrative
The issue with climate alarmists isn't that they're completely inaccurate but rather that for decades, their predictions have been way overblown — such as the claim that New York City would be underwater from melting ice by 2014. The unfortunate reality is that these climate activists, rather than sticking to the facts at hand and looking for realistic policy solutions — such as how to navigate the potential benefits of less ice in the Arctic — have decided to inundate the public with fear.
Nerd narrative
There's a 50% chance that the Arctic will be essentially ice-free by January 2038, according to the Metaculus prediction community."