Want to know how to protect the Arctic Circle? It’s the ‘top of the globe’ and covers 8 countries (including US, Canada, Russia, Greenland and most of Scandinavia – Newcastle is about 800 miles from the southern point. The coldest town on earth (Russia) leaves car engines running, to avoid freezing.
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has millions of acres of land that is home to polar bears and other wildlife, which President Trump just signed an order to open for drilling (it could take years for Biden to reverse this, hopefully not). Polar bears are the largest predators on land, the largest bear ever recorded weighed 157 stone!
The North Pole is the ‘top of the world’, where nearby you’ll find aurora borealis (the beautiful ‘northern lights’, caused when charged particles from the sun strike air molecules in the earth’s magnetic field).
But 75% of sea ice volume in the Arctic has gone. Polar bears are at risk from climate change and could go extinct, as sea ice melts. So it’s important to also stop drilling for oil and minerals in the Arctic Sea, to help endangered species. International peace politics is needed.
What Happens If The Sea Ice Melts?
Greenland is the second largest cap on earth, but in summer, it goes beautifully green with lots of flowering plants. Ice here and elsewhere in the Arctic Circle accounts for 10% of all freshwater on our planet, and the ice is what keeps the planet stable. If the ice melts here, it would be like ‘letting out the plug’ of a giant bath, and could cause catastrophe, which is why it’s so important to keep temperatures below what climate scientists recommend. Global sea levels could rise 24 feet, if this happened. And that would mean whole coastlines could go, and low-lying islands (including the Maldives) would disappear entirely.
A lot of the Arctic Circle consists of Greenland, the largest island in the world, with a very low population. It has the second largest ice sheet in the world (after Antarctica) and is essentially an Arctic desert with hardly any trees, but instead 24 hours darkness during winter and the Northern Lights to view.
So what is sea ice? It’s simply the top layer of the ocean that freezes, but in summer some of it melts. This summer sea ice has been getting smaller each year, due to climate change. But all life in the sea depends on the circulation of ocean currents, massively affected if the sea ice mass gets smaller. Unlike icebergs, sea ice is salty and so easier to break apart. Animals that live on it (like polar bears) can then be at risk (although they can swim, polar bears cannot keep swimming indefinitely, they need to find land to rest and raise cubs and build dens for cubs).
Sea ice is also shiny so sun bounces off back into space, to keep the temperature cold. So if it melts, this can affect temperatures, which then again affects all creatures and the temperature of the ocean.
How to Protect the Arctic Circle
- Read how to reduce your carbon footprint, and campaign against HS2 which is killing nature and wildlife, and the money could be spent instead on upgrading public transport.
- Be a greener driver and switch to clean energy.
- Boycott Shell. After abandoning Arctic drilling a few years back, it recently stated it will start again.
- Support organisations that are filing lawsuits, to stop Arctic drilling. Plaintiffs include include Friends of the Earth.
