Nationalgeographic.co.id – Polar bears have fought in Arctic Pole which heats up. But this is not the first time species this icon suffered a fate like this. In 2012, DNA revealed that polar bears had faced extinction previously. It probably occurred during the warm period 130,000 years ago. After that, they reappeared. For researchers, the discovery raises one burning question: Can polar bears come back again? Such findings now support ambitious plans.
Scientists have proposed creating a sanctuary for species The Arctic depends on is. That’s where the Arctic will take its final position. The proposed site is part of Arctic Pole which some people call Area Is Final (Last Ice Area). The ice will continue to exist in summer even as the planet gets warmer—at least for a few more decades. Here, everything from marine mammals to microbes can crouch in hopes of tackling climate change.
But how long is in the Area Is Last will survive is still unclear.
A computer model released in September predicts that Area Is Last can maintain is its summer seas are indefinite—at least if emissions from fossil fuels don’t warm the planet more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.4 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. That is the goal set by the 2015 Paris climate agreement. But a recent report by the United Nations found that under current government pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Earth’s climate will warm by 2.7 degrees Celsius by 2100. If true, that would mean the end of the world. is summer sea in Arctic Pole.
Also Read: Polar Bears Walk Long Ways to Survive Melting Ice
Some scientists still hope that humanity will reduce emissions and launch new technologies to capture carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Meanwhile, the Last Ice Area could buy time for ice-dependent species. It might serve as a refuge until someday they might return again.
Life in the frozen sea
The final area of ice is a vast floating landscape of solid ice. It stretches from the northern coast of Greenland in the east to Canadian Banks Island in the west. This area, roughly along the West Coast of the United States, is home to the oldest and thickest ice in the Arctic. Why? Islands off Canada’s northern tip prevent this ice from drifting south to where the Atlantic will melt it.
When ice from other parts of the Arctic hit this natural barrier, it builds up. Long, towering ice mountains form for kilometers (miles) across the frozen landscape. “It’s a pretty quiet place,” said Robert Newton. He is an oceanographer at Columbia University in New York City. He is also the author of a recent computer model of sea ice, which was described September 8 in Earth’s Future.
“A lot of life exists at the bottom of the ice,” he said. Its muddy belly is home to plankton and single-celled algae that evolved to grow directly on the ice. These species form the basis of the ecosystem. It feeds on everything from small crustaceans to beluga whales and polar bears.
These species of plankton and algae cannot survive without ice. So when summer sea ice disappears in the Arctic, the bottom of this ecosystem actually melts.
Before long, much of the habitat on which this species depends “will become uninhabitable”, says Brandon Laforest. He is an Arctic expert at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Canada in Montreal. With nowhere else to go, he says, the species is “literally wedged into the Last Ice Area.”
This summer’s ice fort provides an opportunity to build a floating refuge for an Arctic ark. For more than a decade, WWF Canada has worked with a group of researchers and indigenous peoples. Together, they lobbied for the area to be protected from another threat: development by companies that want the region’s oil and mineral resources.
Also Read: Due to climate change, polar bears are predicted to become extinct at the end of this century
“The tragedy,” Newton said, was if there was an area where these animals could survive, “but not because it was developed commercially.”
But for Laforest, protecting the Last Ice Area isn’t just about keeping the Arctic alive. Sea ice is also an important tool in regulating climate. Its white surface reflects sunlight back into space. This helps cool the planet. In a vicious cycle, the loss of sea ice accelerates the warming of air and water, which in turn melts more ice.
And for the people who call the Arctic home, sea ice is critical to food security, transportation and cultural survival.
In 2019, the Canadian government set aside nearly a third of the last ice area as protected spaces called marine reserves. For the next two years, all commercial activities within the confines of the reserve were prohibited. Conservationists are now asking marine reserves for permanent protection.
I hope it’s not too late
Some disturbing signs have emerged that sea ice even here is already in danger. Most worrying was the appearance of this rift in the ice in May 2020. It is the size of Rhode Island and right in the heart of the Last Ice Area. Kent Moore is a geophysicist at the University of Toronto in Canada. He said that this unusual event may occur more frequently as the ice thins. This suggests that the Last Ice Area may not be as violent as we thought, he said.
This also worries Laforest. He and others do not believe that reversing climate change and repopulating the Arctic with ice-dependent species will be possible. “I want to live in a world where we ultimately reverse warming and encourage sea ice regeneration,” he said. But that seems “a daunting task,” he said.
Others remain hopeful. “All models [komputer] shows that if you lower the temperature, the sea ice will return to its historical pattern within a few years,” Newton said.
Also Read: Canadian Arctic Water Bacteria Capable of Decomposing Oil and Diesel
To save is the last oceans—and the creatures that depend on them—removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere will be critical, says Stephanie Pfirman. He’s an oceanographer at Arizona State University in Tempe. He is also a co-author of a study on is Newton’s sea. There are technologies to capture carbon dioxide and prevent more carbon from entering the air. The largest carbon capture plant is in Iceland. However, such a project has not yet started on a large scale.
Without such efforts, the Arctic will lose is its last summer before the end of the century. It means the end of the life above is. But Pfirman says humanity has experienced major economic and social changes in the past—changes on the scale of those that would be needed to reduce emissions and prevent warming.
Protect the Area Is The last one is about buying time. The longer we can maintain is the summer sea, said Pfirman, the more opportunities we have to bring species Arctic—from plankton to polar bears—back from the threshold extinction.
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