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back to article No 'tipping point' for Arctic sea ice - latest science

OK, so the floating Arctic ice cap appears to be shrinking. Catastrophe if it goes on, right? As white ice reflects heat into space, past a certain point more and more heat will not be reflected, more and more ice will melt. Past such a "tipping point", the ice cap would never recover - it would vanish completely, taking with it …

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  1. meno

    Lewis, you misunderstand the journal article

    They're not arguing that there is no feedback mechanism whereby lack of ice leads to overall warming which leads to more lack of ice.

    What their model shows is that this feedback mechanism is not a quick short term effect powerful enough to dominate everything else. In particular their simulation shows that one anomalous hot summer can't suddenly tip you over the edge in a situation where the world has warmed by only 2.1 degrees C.

    I'm not aware of any of the major climate models having assumed that one anomalous hot summer *can* tip you over the edge. So honestly, I don't see the fuss.

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  2. Spotthelemon

    What The Register forgot to include

    The researchers underline that their results do not question the dramatic loss of Arctic sea ice or its relation to anthropogenic climate change. "If we don't slow down global warming extensively, we will lose the summer sea-ice cover in the Arctic within a few decades," says Tietsche. "Our research shows that the speed of sea-ice loss is closely coupled to the speed of global warming. We think that it's important to know that we can still do something about slowing down or possibly even stopping the loss of the sea-ice cover."

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    1. Thought About IT
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      What The Register forgot to include

      You'll find cherry picking like that in all the articles The Register writes on this subject. However, at least Lewis allows his readers to fill in the gaps.

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  3. Plantiful

    No mention of the latest changes in the Polar Vortex

    The latest findings of the unusual weather that we have experienced over the past few years have been related to the weakening of the Polar Vortex (http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/04557_arctic_sees_higher_temperatures_less_ice/). Yes, it's great that the warmer arctic ocean waters will evaporate more quickly and provide some level of water cooling (And air warming), but it has been suggested that this same heat weakens this vortex, letting the cold air travel to lover latitudes. This brings more heat to the arctic, which then starts a convenient, positive feedback loop towards a drastically changed climate system.

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