Climate change and extreme environments

Most people think of climate change as “global warming”, but ?as we have discussed in previous posts?, it is actually an increase in the variability of temperature and precipitation, with a movement towards greater extremes. Due to a variety of factors, such as global oceanic and atmospheric circulation, as well as the unequal distribution of solar radiation across latitudes, and albedo, the poles often experience the most extreme aspects of temperature, and are most susceptible to climate change.

The main reason for this inequality in terms of climate change specifically is albedo. Albedo is the amount of light a surface reflects vs. absorbs. For example, snow has a high albedo because it reflects a lot of light due to its color, while pavement has a low albedo because it absorbs a lot of light due to its color. In the case of the poles, their albedo is naturally very high due to the majority of land cover being snow and ice. However, with climate change, snow and ice begin to melt, and as they do become darker or eventually absent altogether. This leads to a change in the albedo of these surfaces - rather than reflect light, they absorb it, leading to warming via the greenhouse effect. This creates something called a feedback loop - warming leads to lower albedo, which leads to warming, which leads to lower albedo. In essence, the poles experience climate change at an accelerated rate due to the means by which their temperatures are maintained, and are an area we should all look at when considering what our future might look like.

Another example of climate extremes is the increase in wildfires across the globe, especially in Australia, Alaska, Siberia, and California (though here the focus will be on the former two). As the Earth experiences overall warming, there is also a phenomenon of overall drying, and the generally enhanced extremes that come with climate change only further this issue. While fundamentally different from the enhanced change experienced at the poles, the essence is the same. Climate change is not experienced equally across the globe, and we should look to the places experiencing acceleration to prepare and prevent.

To summarize, while we may not be experiencing the impacts of climate change in a big way in most of the world yet, the poles and high latitudes are an example of what could come next, which is why we need to take action.