Biodiversity & Environment
Largest Decline in Arctic Sea Ice
- 18 Jun 2020
- 3 min read
Why in News
The National Centre of Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR) has observed the largest decline in the Arctic Sea ice in the last 41 years.
- The decline in the Arctic Sea ice is due to global warming — leading to localised increase in evaporation, air humidity, cloud cover and rainfall.
Sea Ice
- Sea ice arises as seawater freezes. Because ice is less dense than water, it floats on the ocean's surface.
- Sea ice covers about 7% of the Earth's surface and about 12% of the world's oceans.
Key Points
- Increased Rate of Sea Ice Decline:
- In the last 40 years (1979-2018), the sea ice has been declining at 4.7% per decade, while the current declining rate was found to be 13% in July 2019.
- Thus, it has been noted that the volume of ice formation during winters is unable to keep pace with the volume of ice loss during summers.
- Additionally, it has been predicted that if this trend continues, there would be no ice left in the Arctic Sea by 2050.
- Impacts:
- The decrease of the Arctic Sea ice area and the increase in the duration of summer and autumn seasons affected the local weather and climate over the Arctic Ocean and its marginal seas.
- Being a sensitive indicator of climate change, the loss of ice cover in the Arctic Sea may affect other components of the climate system such as reduction of heat, water vapour, and other material exchange between the atmosphere and the sea.
- The northern hemisphere experienced record high-temperature rise, especially during the spring and summer months.
National Centre of Polar and Ocean Research
- National Centre of Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR) was established as an autonomous Research and Development Institution of the Ministry of Earth Sciences in 1998.
- It is located in Goa.
- Earlier known as National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR), NCPOR is India’s premier R&D institution responsible for the country’s research activities in the Polar and Southern Ocean realms.
- It is the nodal agency for planning, promotion, coordination and execution of the entire gamut of polar and southern ocean scientific research in the country as well as for the associated logistics activities.
Way Forward
- The sea-ice loss at such a high rate is a matter of concern for all the lives on Earth.
- Thus, maintaining the balance between anthropological activities and carrying capacity of the environment is one of the foremost steps that can be taken at this point of time.
