What loss of #Arctic summer #SeaIce means:

#Extinction : #PolarBear cubs lose their playgrounds on floating ice sheets.

# Loss of known weather patterns :
- bad for agriculture, nature, #biodiversity, #adaption .

#Health :
- human, plant, and animal health suffers, including insects, in more and longer heatwaves.
- some pollinators lose fertility in heatwaves; offspring has even lower fertility.
- Stationary heat in Alaska's and Canada's heated rivers kills #salmon and animals who used to feed on salmon, like the #grizzly . #Extinction

#permafrost thaw
- speeds up. CH4 is emitted which accelerates warming and increases impacts, including impact on further #PermafrostThaw 🔁

#ForestFire :
- stationary heat evaporates water from forest and causes bigger fires. Wrt boreal fires, we lose the carbon sink.
- Air pollution: for animals and humans in Siberia but also in Moscow, air in summer becomes toxic from the smoke. #Miscarriage
- #GHG emissions CH4, CO2 increase from more fires. All the fossil CO2 that had been so neatly parked in forest trees, is emitted at once. Which accelerates heating 🔁

#GhostFire :
-ignited #peat from fires started in summer heatwaves can smoulder on through winter under snow, and flare up again next spring, hot or not. More #GHG , more permafrost thaw 🔁

#Drought :
- #Azores high expands then, and pushes the Iceland low AND its rains, further North. Regions fall dry which used to get their summer rain from the Iceland low (or even winter snow, but then due to #AMOC slowdown – which expands the Azore high in winter).
Northern Italy, France, the Alpes, Benelux, Germany... dry when we lose sea ice. Dryer still in more or longer heatwaves. #Fires 🔁 #CropLoss #WaterScarcity #WaterWar with #Industry and #PowerGeneration

#Flooding:
- Northern Europe receives more rain because the Iceland low has to drop its ballast somewhere.
-More #Flashflood like July 2021 in Belgium and Germany in more frequent stationary lows like Bernd.

#monsoon Asia / China is affected by loss of sea ice. But I forgot how.

Permafrost thaw could release bacteria and viruses.

As part of the ESA–NASA Arctic Methane and Permafrost Challenge, new research has revealed that rapidly thawing permafrost in the Arctic has the potential to release antibiotic-resistant bacteria, undiscovered viruses and even radioactive waste from Cold War nuclear reactors and submarines.

Permafrost covers around 23 million square kilometres in the northern hemisphere

#AusPol #permafrostthaw

https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Permafrost_thaw_could_release_bacteria_and_viruses