The last nine years have been the warmest ever recorded in the Arctic Circle, and this year saw a number of new milestones in the region: It was the rainiest summer on record, and plant life bloomed across the tundra at a near-record pace.
As the Arctic reacts to the planet-warming gases that humans have pumped into the atmosphere, the region is swiftly transforming and entering what scientists call a “new regime.” That’s one of the findings of this year’s Arctic Report Card, a document published by the U.S. government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which shows how wildfires and thawing permafrost have turned the region into a net source of carbon emissions for the first time.“The Arctic of today is vastly different from the Arctic of decades ago,” said Twila Moon, deputy lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center and lead editor of the report, which is the work of 97 scientists across 11 countries and has been published annually for nearly two decades. “Changes that happen in the Arctic have a direct influence on those of us far away from it.”
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