Scientists have provided new evidence of global warming by examining permafrost in Tibet. As it turned out, its thickness has decreased by 26.5 centimeters over the past half century.
The Chinese news agency Xinhua, citing a report submitted by the Tibet Autonomous Region's meteorological service, reports that from 1961 to 2012, every 10 years, the thickness of the never-melting earth in the region shrank by 5.3 centimeters every 10 years. Over the past three decades, this speed has grown and amounted to almost 7.5 centimeters in a decade.
If such rates continue, then another 20 years will pass, and the area occupied by permafrost in Tibet will decrease by an average of 4%. This can not only lead to disastrous consequences for the high-altitude steppes, but also release large volumes of carbon dioxide from the soil.
Scientists associate a similar trend in permafrost reduction with global warming: over the past half century, the average temperature in Tibet is 1.6 degrees above the accepted norm, and the annual minimum has also increased by 2.1 degrees. At the same time, the precipitation in the region also increased.
The Russian island of Muostakh is gradually disappearing
Global warming threatens the disappearance of the island off the northern shores of Eastern Siberia. Scientists came to such conclusions after analyzing the erosion of Muostakh Island in the Laptev Sea.
Frank Gunther from the German Institute for Polar and Marine Research named after Alfred Wegener, together with his colleagues from Russia and Germany, analyzed satellite and airbrush images of the Laptev Sea, made measurements directly on the island, and also studied images of the East Siberian Sea. For comparison, the period 1951-2012 was compared with the changes over the last 4 years.
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A study published in the journals Biogeosciences and Cryosphere notes that the region's average summer temperatures have increased over the past few years. Because of this, the sea is not covered with ice for more time, which allows the waves to undermine the coast for almost two weeks longer. In addition, this contributes to the subsidence of the island, because part of it below the surface is ice.
According to all these data, the island of Muostach is threatened with extinction: over the next 100 years, it will split into several parts, and then disappear. According to scientists, over the past 60 years, it has already lost a fourth of its area.
Melting Arctic Ice May Increase Rain
Over the past five years, there has been an unusually high rainfall in the UK and northern Europe, prompting scientists to wonder why. James Screen of the University of Exeter in the UK believes that winds that have changed due to the melting of the Arctic ice are responsible for the rain.
He and his colleagues came to such conclusions by collecting data from climate satellites and building on their basis a model that reflects the climate of northern Europe and the southern Arctic.
An article with research appeared in the journal Environmental Research Letters and suggests that the melting ice of the Arctic leads to a change in the eastern winds of the high layers of the atmosphere. They were the ones who brought the rains to Great Britain and other European countries. Thus, the reduction of ice in the Arctic affects not only the ecology of this region, but also Europe.
Climatologists noticed that the high-altitude east winds not only shifted to the south, so that now they blow not over the waters between Scotland and Iceland, but over Great Britain, but also changed the nature of the movement.
In addition to rains in northern Europe, they also lead to less rainfall in the Mediterranean and the south of the continent.