“The most important message from this year’s report is that now is the time to act,” said NOAA Chief Rick Spinrad. The USA must “dramatically reduce” its emissions of climate-damaging greenhouse gases, he emphasized.
According to the report, which involved 82 authors from 13 different countries, warming sea and air temperatures continues. This will lead to a decrease in snow cover, a decline in sea ice and further melting of the Greenland ice sheet.
Long-term ocean warming is having unpredictable impacts on ecosystems, according to the report, leading to record numbers of wild salmon in Alaska’s Bristol Bay in 2021 and 2022. On the other hand, due to heat waves, king and ketal salmon populations declined.
According to the report, the permafrost in the Arctic is also continuing to thaw. This threatens to release carbon dioxide that was previously bound in the frozen subsoil, which could lead to an acceleration of global climate change.
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