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Abstract

When the Arctic Ocean ice cover reached a record low in the late summer of 2007, it provided images of the Arctic entering an era where human-induced climate change had started to create a new geography — the ultimate evidence of the ‘Anthropocene’ where human actions are a major driver of Earth as a system (Crutzen and Stoermer, 2000). Given that emissions of greenhouse gases continue to increase and that the connection between these emissions and increasing global temperatures is firmly established (IPCC, 2007a), a prominent assumption is that the ice will continue to retreat. In public discussions, the question is no longer whether the Arctic Ocean will be virtually ice-free in the summer, but when this will happen.

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© 2013 Annika E. Nilsson and Ralf Döscher

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Nilsson, A.E., Döscher, R. (2013). Signals from a Noisy Region. 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_5

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