Impacts of a melting cryosphere ice loss around the world
With delicately balanced ecosystems, weather patterns and a lot of ice, the planet’s frozen areas (collectively known as the ‘cryosphere’) are some of the most sensitive to climate change. As the cryosphere warms, we can expect to see a range of knock-on effects. This briefing runs through what we know about how the cryosphere is reacting to climate change, and what the likely consequences of continued warming are.
The warming cryosphere
The cryosphere comprises of the Earth’s ice – notably the Arctic, the Antarctic, and the world’s glaciers.
Historical records suggest that Arctic sea ice began to decline around 1900, with a more accelerated ice loss since the 1950s. Since 1979, satellite records have confirmed an overall decline in summer sea ice coverage of around 13% per decade. Although fears that Arctic sea ice would reach a ‘tipping point’ and rapidly disappear currently seem to be unfounded, the mainstream view of scientists is that we will see ice-free summers in the Arctic ocean within the next few decades.
The major body of land ice in the Arctic - the Greenland ice sheet - has been found to be thickening inland. Nearer the coast, however, the ice sheet is thinning and shrinking, at an accelerating rate. Overall, the Greenland ice sheet has been found to be losing ice mass over the last twenty years, and this ice loss is becoming faster.