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An Ice Free Arctic Sea? The Science of Sea Ice and Its Interests

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Media and the Politics of Arctic Climate Change

Abstract

The 2007 sea-ice minimum was quickly framed as a unique event and a very clear signal that the Arctic was a bellwether for global climate change. It became an event of the future it heralded rather than of the past or recent changes that had created it. That it was a single-year event was considered of minor importance; the 2008 to 2012 figures have corroborated the long-term downward trend and the US National Snow and Ice Detection Center that monitors the ice maintains that they expect a seasonally ice-free Arctic in 20 to 30 years.1 The minimum of 2007 can be seen as an event of the Anthropocene: the kind of event which signals that humanity has now become, according to some scientists (Crutzen and Stoermer, 2000; Steffen, Crutzen and McNeill, 2007; Robin and Steffen, 2007) the most significant agent of change on the planet. In fact it is an event that is more significant than most others, which are punctual episodes with little or no lasting effects and with unclear longevity. Storms, hurricanes, floods, fires happen, cause great havoc and breaking news, but then they fall into oblivion. Melting sea ice is, perhaps paradoxically, more lasting. It has the effect that once it has melted it may be gone for a long time and a major shift back to a colder climate over a period of many years is required to restore it. Ice may form in an instant, a moment of crystallization that can even be heard as clearly as a shotgun sometimes, but its life cycle is full of inbuilt slowness.

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Authors
  1. Sverker Sörlin
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  2. Julia Lajus
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Stockholm University, Sweden

    Miyase Christensen

  2. KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden

    Miyase Christensen  & Nina Wormbs  & 

  3. Stockholm Environment Institute, Sweden

    Annika E. Nilsson

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© 2013 Sverker Sörlin and Julia Lajus

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Sörlin, S., Lajus, J. (2013). An Ice Free Arctic Sea? The Science of Sea Ice and Its Interests. In: Christensen, M., Nilsson, A.E., Wormbs, N. (eds) Media and the Politics of Arctic Climate Change. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137266231_4

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