In the Arctic, the end-of-summer sea ice extent in 2020 was the second-lowest in the last 42 years.
“The ice used to melt out in June or July. Now it melts out in May. It used to come back in September or October. Now the ice comes back in November or December,” says Professor Jim Thomson, Senior Principal Oceanographer at the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Lab and a Professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering.
The implications of the Arctic’s changing sea ice are many. On a global scale, sea ice influences global climate. Within the region, activities such as commercial shipping and naval operations may find life easier with the decline. For local communities, however, the loss of sea ice means the loss of a protective barrier that shelters their homes from harsh waves driven by storms that would otherwise batter and erode coastlines that are not resilient to their impacts.
In a twist, waves along the coast and further offshore may become a more prominent feature as the sea ice continues to decline.
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