Barrow, Alaska,
is the northern-most settlement of the U.S., reachable only by air or
sea; there are no roads connecting it with the lower Alaskan road
system. (It is one of the locations in my novel, Butterflies Escape.) Long-term trend in the record of snow melt date at the NOAA/ESRL Barrow Observatory is shown below. The appears convincing - since 1940, the snow melt date has advanced by 10 days.
Barrow, Alaska: Ground Zero for Climate Change explains, similar to the graphic above, winter temperatures keep getting warmer. There is water where before there was only ice. Inland lakes are melting and losing their ice and water, leaving a very arid territory.
More ominously, Methane Releases from Arctic Shelf May be Much Larger and Faster Than Anticipated tells that the permafrost underneath the Arctic Shelf has perforated and is leaking large volumes of methane into the atmosphere. Scientists caution that methane is 25-30 times worse than carbon dioxide in the upper atmosphere. Wiki explains that methane, CH4, can trap about 20 times the heat of carbon dioxide, CO2.
With some additional research, I discovered NOAA's annual greenhouse gas index, shown in the graphic below.
Methane emissions had leveled for almost a decade, but the recent data points suggest a sudden increase in methane. It is early, but we may have reached an inflection point. Annual Greenhouse Gas Index (AGGI) Indicates Sharp Rise in Carbon Dioxide and Methane in 2007 tells that in 2007, methane increased by 27 million tons.
Because of recent discovery of high methane concentrations emitting from the Arctic Shelf, scientists are concerned. There may soon be irrefutable evidence of climate change.
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