The role of the Arctic and Antarctic and their impact on global climate change: Further findings since the release of IPCC AR4, 2007

Abstract

Changes in the climate of the Arctic and of the Antarctic have been of great concern to the international scientific andsocial communities since the release in 2007 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report (IPCCAR4). Since then, many new findings have been reported from observations and research carried out in the Arctic and Antarcticduring the fourth International Polar Year (IPY). There is evidence that global warming is inducing rapid changes in the Arctic andAntarctic, in both a quantitative and qualitative sense, and that these regional changes could be used as indicators of global climatechange. Declining Arctic sea ice could affect winter snowfall across much of the Northern Hemisphere by bringing harsher winters.Projections suggest that summertime Arctic sea ice will disappear by 2037. By the 2070s, the Antarctic ozone hole will recover tothe level of the early 1980s, following the ban on the production of Freon earlier this century. With the loss of the shielding effectof the ozone hole, Antarctic surface temperatures will increase, ice sheets in East Antarctica will begin to melt, and the Antarcticsea ice will retreat. Therefore, sea level rise will become an increasingly serious issue this century. As sea surface temperature rises,the Southern Ocean will become less effective as a sink for atmospheric CO2 and the increase of surface CO2 will be faster thanthat in the atmosphere. Increased surface CO2 would lead to ocean acidification and affect ecological systems and food chains.