When people think of climate change, the melting of Arctic sea ice is the most common image that comes to mind. The resulting sea level rise is not the only devastating consequence it produces though. There are also the following feedback loops which will accelerate global warming and perhaps contribute to ‘runaway’ climate change:
1. The ‘albedo’ effect - less snow-covered sea ice to reflect back sunlight, leading to more heat being absorbed.
2. Melting uses up a huge amount of latent heat energy which, once the sea ice disappears, will go straight into warming.
3. The release of methane during the thawing of permafrost - a shorter-lived but 30x harder-hitting gas than CO2 - which could cause faster bursts of warming.
#climatechange #environment #extinctionrebellion #tellthetruth #actnow #rebelforlife
#climatechange #environment #extinctionrebellion #tellthetruth #actnow #rebelforlife
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