The summer of 2019 was the warmest summer on record in the Arctic. The Greenland Ice Sheet lost over 350 billion tons of ice. For the Arctic Arts team, that meant some incredible photographs of blue rivers and lakes tracing over the surface of the otherwise snow covered ice. The full impact of such great summer melt is still being studied. This cold, fresh water appears to effect the great currents that carry water around the world’s oceans, particularly the AMOC (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation). A slowing of the AMOC can dramatically change weather in places far from the Arctic.

The Greenland Ice Sheet is melting at 7 times the rate it was in the early 1990s. For every centimeter of sea level rise, 6 million more people are exposed to coastal flooding on a yearly basis. Mitigating CO2 levels to prevent catastrophic loss of ice from the world’s ice sheets is the only way we can keep our current coastlines habitable and safe for the people who live there.

Sea ice is a dynamic part of the Arctic and plays a critical role in the lives of many marine animals and indigenous people living there. As temperatures warm over the Arctic seas, ice melts more quickly and does not reform as easily. Ice formed over many years is becoming less and less prevalent, resulting in vast areas of the northern oceans that are grey rather than white in winter, since younger ice is darker. White reflects more of the sun’s radiation and keeps things cooler, so the darker sea ice increases temperatures and contributes to even more melt.

Sea ice loss has also changed the way indigenous people and many animals function in winter. In some areas of the Arctic, people can no longer travel by dog sled over the ice in winter because the ice has become too unpredictable and dangerous. This results in communities that are accessible only by helicopter in winter. Polar bears need sea ice for hunting and to travel long distances. The unpredictable ice can strand the bears on land with limited food and in proximity to human communities.

The earlier sea ice melt has created a boom for the fisherman in the Arctic. Fishing can begin several weeks earlier and there is an abundance of halibut in some areas , which is a lucrative fish for the indigenous people. Cod populations are also moving north as the waters warm, diversifying the fishing and increasing profits.