It’s a Small World After All: The Connection between Arctic Ice Loss and Tropical Zones
Some people say that tropical rainforests are the lungs of our planet. And it is true, they trap a lot of carbon dioxide from our atmosphere, and release much needed oxygen. Unfortunately, deforestation and climate change are threatening the functionality of these magnificent ecosystems which is bad news for us earthlings.
What you may not know is that these changes are not just driven by events in the tropics. Our climate is a complex system where even the most distant places influence each other’s weather. The relationship between different weather systems are known to climatologists as teleconnections. These teleconnections are extremely complex and have a multitude of driving forces.
However, extreme weather events are increasing in these tropical zones and evidence shows that the Arctic warming is a large contributor. Climate modeling has shown that temperature increase in the Northern Hemisphere has profound effects on our tropical rainforests. This has tremendous effects on both agriculture and human health. Not only does the Arctic have an effect on weather in the tropical zones, but what happens in the tropics affects the Arctic as well. As we explore this seemingly distant connection, let’s take a look at whats going on at Santa’s workshop and what this means for our changing climate.
The Arctic is warming 2–3 times faster than the rest of the planet, and the loss of reflective ice contributes somewhere between ⅓ to ½ of earth’s warming. This rapid loss affects the Polar Jet Stream, a highway of air located in the Upper atmosphere which drive the weather patterns across the Earth.
When we have extreme warming in the Arctic, this causes a weakening of the Northward Polar jet stream. According to Jennifer Francis of Rutger’s University, the jet stream meanders with large upward swings and downward dips bringing with them extreme differences in both surface temperatures and moisture content of the air. What used to be a tight, and contained stream of air has now weakened and become “wavy” or “floppy”.
The weakening means longer periods of rainfall in the “dips” and extreme droughts in the “swings”. Imagine periods ripe for superstorms with a lot of moisture to drive them, stacked against drought stricken periods with little moisture creating dry tinder for wildfires.
Deforestation in the Tropics as well as Arctic sea ice loss is contributing to these extreme weather patterns. Restoring Arctic sea ice and reforestation in tropical latitudes will have mutually beneficial effects and could be the answer to stabilizing our climate.
Ice911 is an environmental non-profit dedicated to restoring Arctic sea ice via safe, reversible albedo modification techniques, but most of their work involves the use of reflective hollow glass beads. These beads are white and they are made of silica, which is the main ingredient in rocks. It is meant to stick to the darker seasonal ice and increase its reflectivity, slowing the melting rate. The material allows young first year ice to act like older, multiyear ice which prevents it from disappearing completely in the next melt cycle.
This restoration is not the be all end all solution to our changing climate. It is meant to stabilize the jet stream by maintaining the natural infrastructure of our Earth’s cooling system. This can buy us some time while we make the necessary changes to launch humanity into a sustainable future, but we have to act now.
