Californians need to be worried about the melting Arctic

Every summer, the amount of Arctic sea ice lost almost doubles that which melted in the 1900s, based on 2020 research from the University of California San Diego. Upon first hearing this unexpected statistic, many Californians may wonder what it has to do with them. Though the Arctic is 2,792 miles away from us, its destruction hits startlingly close to home.

This is because of us and everyone else on our planet. The driving force causing the Arctic to melt is global warming, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency. While ice reflects the sun’s rays, water absorbs them. As a result, when the Arctic melts, the surrounding oceans absorb more sunlight than before and become hotter. The heat then rises into the atmosphere and travels southward, passing California and heading towards the equator—making weather patterns extreme. 

Many Californians are unaware of this process. We tend to focus our climate change policies on compost, electric cars, recycling, and food alternatives. These measures, however, do not fully account for global warming solutions. We need to center more policies around a bigger threat to Californians: the Arctic melting. Even if our current laws were effective, we would not have solved the main environmental problem.

The first step to address this issue is to educate the public about the connection between California and the Arctic. This would move us towards more constructive policies and solutions.

Cibrina Hoffman, a Brentwood School physics teacher, states that our society needs to raise awareness and take action to preserve the environment.

“It’s happening slowly so people don’t think it’s a big deal. But, a change in our ecosystem is gonna change how we get food and grow plants. It has a trickle down effect on everything in our lives,” Hoffman said.

This perspective is backed by 2022 research performed by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Their studies concluded that the modified weather conditions due to the melting will result in two concerning outcomes for California—raging fires and heavy downpours.

As the Arctic makes climate patterns severe, there are optimally hot conditions for wildfires. The PNNL found that Arctic-driven weather is the root of about half of California wildfires. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection also discovered that the five largest fires in California have all occurred since 2018, which is when the Arctic’s ice started to disappear more quickly.

In addition to the fires, these hot temperatures over the Pacific Ocean contribute to downpours in California. The heat makes atmospheric pressure fluctuate, which stirs up storms and produces intermittent bursts of rain.

Both factors need to be considered when evaluating the risk to Californians. Dr. Sabrina Erickson, who teaches Brentwood School’s Advanced Placement Environmental Science, touches on the destruction of global warming.

“Global warming is causing the ocean and the sea levels to rise so there will be flooding and we’ll actually lose coastal areas… a lot of the estuaries are also getting ruined because of the sea levels rising in,” Erickson said.

The only way to prevent these outcomes is to stop the Arctic’s melting. Without worthwhile policies, no progress will be made. Our government needs to invest in options that slow the melting process.

One possible solution is utilizing new inventions. In 2019, the research organization Ice911 proposed the distribution of small glass spheres around the Arctic to reflect sunlight. This would avert heat from rising in the atmosphere and causing hazardous weather.

Another approach to the situation would be to cut our greenhouse gasses in half. According to National Geographic in 2017, if we reach this goal by next year, then we would have twice as much time before the ice disappears.

Unfortunately, we have not implemented either solution. Nobody is certain about how much more of the Arctic will melt or what the long-term effects will be. Since the Arctic is warming at double the rate as other parts of the world, California will likely face extreme weather patterns, conflagrations, torrential rain, and ruthless storms. Will this mean an iceless Arctic? A charred California? Storms and floods more menacing than the world has seen before? If we do not start caring about the Arctic now, these could all be in our future.

Melting ice in the Arctic. Image courtesy of Harvard University.