The Arctic Ocean, commonly known as “Glacial Artic Sea“, occupies a small portion of the North Pole's territory.
It is among the smallest oceans in the world, as well as among the least known. Its incredible remoteness and the "desolation" of the territories, inhabited mostly by polar bears, meant that people ignored the presence of this ocean for a long time.
A few months ago, the terrible photos of polar bears found dead at the North Pole awakened general interest. This desolate part of the world has gained new attention, and scientists have turned to analyzing the conditions of the land.
Unfortunately, what they discovered is not at all reassuring, and could have repercussions on the "side effects" of the climate change. We already feel the temperature changes, but the situation could degenerate in a short time.
Let's see in detail what the experts understood and what emerged from the research.
Research on the sediments of the Arctic Ocean
“The Arctic Ocean has been warming for much longer than we previously thought. (…) We are talking about the early 1900s, and since then we have already supercharged the atmosphere with carbon dioxide. It is possible that the Arctic Ocean is more sensitive to greenhouse gases."
Francesco Muschitiello, Cambridge professor
These words belong to an interview given by Francesco Muschitiello to CNN, on the occasion of the dissemination of the research results. Muschitiello, the author of the study together with 13 other scientists, offered an objective point of view towards a rather complex situation.
The group of scientists discovered thanks to their own analysis, that the Arctic Ocean has started to warm years ago than previously thought.
We do not know exactly what caused such an early and violent overheating, and it is therefore necessary to investigate the phenomenon better.
To carry out the study, the researchers used marine sediments taken from the Fram Straight, a specific point where the Arctic Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean meet.
The sediments allowed him to analyze more than 800 years of history, demonstrating that the onset of warming was much earlier than expected.
A sudden increase in warming is associated with the beginning of the 20th century, at the moment when we began to perceive the severity of the mistakes made.
Conclusions
We have always thought that climate change began to suffer from the twentieth century, we always thought we had the whole situation under control.
Still, the latest research is showing that the damage to Earth is far greater than we thought.
The time has come to assume our responsibilities and accept everything that mankind has caused with its waste and consumption.
There isn't much time left. The Arctic Ocean is warming fast, and we have too little time before the consequences become unmanageable.
Have we arrived too late?
