When you think of Siberia, you probably picture snow mobiles and huskies. These sights, however, are to become less of the norm, replaced instead with out of control wild fires and disappearing sea ice. Siberia, and indeed other parts of the Arctic Circle in Canada, Alaska and Scandinavia, are expected to really start heating up. As in, twice as fast as the rest of the world. It has long been known that global warming will impact Arctic regions much more severely than elsewhere on the planet, because of the loss of ice and snow, which can effectively reflect a large proportion of the radiative heat from the sun’s UV rays. This is “Arctic amplification” and is a great example of the importance of realizing that 1.5°C of global warming is an average, and does not simply mean that wherever you are in the world, you’re going to feel 1.5°C warmer. Many places on Earth will experience average temperatures much higher than this increase.
Read moreFire & Ice in the Arctic Circle
