‘Irreversible’ Arctic Ice Loss Seems To Be Reversing Itself
For years, scientists have been warning the Arctic was in a “ death spiral ” and could soon be ice-free during the summertime and shrink to unprecedented levels due to man-made global warming. Such ice loss could be “irreversible,” some scientists claimed . But new research from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography says that predictions of an ice-free Arctic are based on “ oversimplified ” theories. Scripps researchers, who were co-funded by the Navy, found that the Arctic sea ice may be “substantially more stable than has been suggested in previous idealized modeling studies.” “We found that two key physical processes, which were often overlooked in previous process models, were actually essential for accurately describing whether sea ice loss is reversible,” Scripps climate scientist Ian Eisenman, co-author of a new study refuting claims the Arctic is in a “death spiral,” said in a statement . “Our results show that the basis for a sea ice tip...