Cryospheric and Polar Processes Seminar

"The Unraveling Arctic: Science, Communications and Policy" by Rafe Pomerance, Chairman Arctic 21.
Abstract:
Greenland and Arctic glaciers are shrinking. Sea ice and spring snow cover are in decline.  Permafrost is thawing. These trends amount to the unraveling of the Arctic.  In response, Arctic 21 was established as a network of non governmental organizations, scientists and research institutions  with two goals: #1 to communicate the ongoing unraveling; #2 to establish a policy framework to increase the likelihood of an appropriate response by governments both in the Arctic and globally.   Crucial to this effort was to convince the Obama State Department to make climate change in the Arctic a focus of the US Chairmanship of the Arctic Council and to describe the global consequences of climate change the Arctic.  Arctic 21 was then able to pursue a framework for policy by asking the question, “What is the Arctic we have to have to sustain the global climate system?”.  At this point several multilateral governmental institutions will have to face the unraveling, including the Arctic Council,  the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the Conference of the Parties of the Paris Agreement.