How Did We Get Here? Studying the Arctic to Understand Climate Change

What is it about?

For decades, scientists have agreed that an increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would cause increases in temperatures all over the world. They have also agreed that the largest and most obvious changes would occur in the Arctic. But there a lack of data and appropriate analysis techniques meant that it was difficult to confirm it. It was also difficult to tell if the increasing temperatures were due to natural changes in climate, or man-made ones. It was only in the mid-1990s that climate researchers agreed there was a significant human influence on the global climate. They also agreed that the Arctic needed to be studied. The response of the Arctic to global cli-mate change would be key to future climate understanding and predictions.

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Photo by Daiwei Lu on Unsplash

Photo by Daiwei Lu on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Increasing temperatures in the Arctic will lead to the ice melting. This will not only cause changes to sea-levels, but also increase the frequency of events like cyclones over the Arctic Ocean. Studying changes to the sea-ice and ocean in the Arctic is key to understanding the future of climate change. Moreover, merely collecting data is not enough. The earliest evidence of climate change was missed due to poor analysis, scientific agreement and scientific vision. Analyzing the data properly and looking for new approaches to understand it is key. KEY TAKEAWAY The Arctic sea ice is melting due to human effects on climate change. This will also cause changes to weather events in the Arctic Ocean. Studying the changes to the Arctic to try to better understand the effects of cli-mate change is key.