Northern Latitudes Warming

For John, BLUF:  Changes in the permafrost is an indication that there is warming ongoing.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Scientists amazed as Canadian permafrost thaws 70 years early

From Reuters, by Mr Matthew Green, 18 June 2019.

Here is the lede plus two:

Permafrost at outposts in the Canadian Arctic is thawing 70 years earlier than predicted, an expedition has discovered, in the latest sign that the global climate crisis is accelerating even faster than scientists had feared.

A team from the University of Alaska Fairbanks said they were astounded by how quickly a succession of unusually hot summers had destabilized the upper layers of giant subterranean ice blocks that had been frozen solid for millennia.

“What we saw was amazing,” Vladimir E. Romanovsky, a professor of geophysics at the university, told Reuters by telephone. “It’s an indication that the climate is now warmer than at any time in the last 5,000 or more years.”

Here is how the article concludes:

Even if current commitments to cut emissions under the 2015 Paris Agreement are implemented, the world is still far from averting the risk that these kinds of feedback loops will trigger runaway warming, according to models used by the U.N.-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

With scientists warning that sharply higher temperatures would devastate the global south and threaten the viability of industrial civilization in the northern hemisphere, campaigners said the new paper reinforced the imperative to cut emissions.

But, if Southern regions become too hot, then will not northern areas become more habitable?

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff