Why a Warming Arctic Has the U.S. Coast Guard Worried About the Rest of the Country

One of the perks of going out on a U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker in the Arctic is something called Ice Liberty. Ports are few and far between when you’re north of the Arctic Circle, so instead of shore leave, Coastguardsmen and women will locate a large slab of floating ice, cordon off a safe area, put up a watch for polar bears, and throw a football around. It’s cold, but worth it, says electrician master chief Mark Hulen, who, over the past two decades, has gone out for Ice Liberty on every one of his last six Arctic missions with the Coast Guard. But this year, as the Coast Guard cutter Healy —one of two ice breakers in the U.S. Fleet—traversed the Arctic from Seattle to Baltimore via the Northwest Passage, Ice Liberty wasn’t an option. “We struggled with finding a good enough piece of ice to stand on,” he says. “Nothing was thick enough.” [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] A small disappointment for Hulen and his crewmates is a warning sign of things to come. The Arctic is warming at roughly twice the rate as the rest of the world, and summer sea ice cover has declined to unprecedented lows. Arctic sea ice minimums are measured in September, before the winter starts a new cycle. This year’s extent was tied for seventh lowest in 43 years of recordings (2020 was the second lowest). Overall, minimum sea ice extent has decreased by more than a third since 1979. That means what would have been work for an ice...
Source: TIME: Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Uncategorized climate change healthscienceclimate Londontime overnight Source Type: news