Arctic ice melting at an alarming rate 2040 may be completely ice-free existence

According to a report by Russian satellite network on May 5, a new report released by Arctic Council Arctic Monitoring and Evaluation Plan (AMAP) Working Group said that the Arctic is rapidly melting and may be completely ice-free by 2040. In the meantime, a study by the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom found that in Antarctica, ice melts at a rate of about one-third of its expected value.

Why Arctic ice and snow melted so fast, and Antarctic ice and snow melting speed so slow? Reported that the reason for this problem is more complicated. On the surface, there are many similarities between the North Pole and the Antarctic: both are cold, sparsely populated, snow-covered wastelands at two levels of the Earth. But they are also fundamentally different: the Arctic is a sea surrounded by land (such as Alaska, Canada and the northern part of Russia), while the Antarctic is a land surrounded by the sea. The Arctic is thought to be essentially a giant ice mass in the Arctic Ocean, while Antarctica is land covered by snow and ice.

The report said that "essentially, the two effects of global warming can be offset by each other in the context of Antarctica. Both polar sea ice are melting at a faster rate (the number of sea ice both hit a record low in February ), The snow cover in Antarctica has resulted in the formation of ice sheets in some areas. "

Climatologists point out that increasing snowfall is another side effect of climate warming. One of the consequences of global warming is the increase in ocean evaporation, as the heat of the ocean sends water vapor into the atmosphere. As the water vapor in the atmosphere increases, rainfall and snowfall will also increase accordingly.

In the past, snowfall in Antarctica was rare, but the warming of the mainland led to a wider range of frequent snowfalls in Antarctica. In contrast, however, the amount of ice in the Arctic has been steadily declining since the early 2000s.

Simply put, since the Arctic is cold, only less water vapor can enter the atmosphere. This means that there is very little snowfall in the Arctic and snowfall is scarce.

Antarctica has its own wind and ocean current, and thus isolated from the trend of global warming, while the Atlantic Ocean winds and the Arctic Ocean has brought a greater impact.