Low Sea Ice Volume

This time of year is the peak extent of Arctic sea ice, but so far this year each month has seen a record low volume.

Update (July 9):  Brian Kahn notes that sea ice volume continues to be at a record low. Even more dramatic--freezing degree days are well below 2012 which saw the record low sea ice extent.

Scientists project that even if the world manages to cut carbon pollution enough to keep global warming below 3.6°F (2°C), the Arctic could still face ice-free summers in the coming decades.

Also, a reminder from Richard Rood that further warming is locked in even if all carbon dioxide emissions stopped now--perhaps 0.6 degree Celsius on top of the one degree of warming already experienced. His own expectation is around 4 degrees of warming.

If we stop our emissions today, we won’t go back to the past. The Earth will warm. And since the response to warming is more warming through feedbacks associated with melting ice and increased atmospheric water vapor, our job becomes one of limiting the warming. If greenhouse gas emissions are eliminated quickly enough, within a small number of decades, it will keep the warming manageable and the Paris Agreement goals could be met. It will slow the change – and allow us to adapt. Rather than trying to recover the past, we need to be thinking about best possible futures.