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Changes in polar regions signal dire consequences for planet and humanity

Published: 06 Jan. 2025, 07:00

LEE SOO-JUNG
[email protected]

Researchers monitor the activities of polar bears in the Arctic. For safety, one person oversees field researchers from the vessel. [KOREA POLAR RESEARCH INSTITUTE]

Scientists in the Arctic and Antarctica say humans are triggering climate change, warning that shrinking glaciers and icecaps in relatively unexplored polar regions could impact humanity and the planet in unpredictable ways.

The polar regions are areas of extreme cold and harsh conditions. This hinders human exploration, leaving them relatively unknown spaces subject to future exploration. Yet, they are believed to be crucial in controlling global climate.

Polar regions are deemed the “heart of the ocean” as cold seawater drives oceanic currents that circulate the planet. The speed of sea currents affects climate.

Areas of cold air that rotate around the poles, called polar vortexes, also determine daily weather, even in midlatitude regions such as Korea and Japan. Weakening of the polar vortexes due to rising temperatures moves cold air masses southward. Warmer polar regions can send cold waves into mid and low-latitude regions.

Polar regions also affect the Earth’s ecosystem significantly. Krill and marine algae that live near both poles occupy the bottom of the aquatic food chain.

Humans aren't immune to changes in the polar regions. The polar regions' intense power over the planet’s climate means they're also the most sensitive areas to climate change.

"Climate change starts and ends in polar regions," said Shin Hyoung-chul, chief of the Korea Polar Research Institute.

While conspiracy theorists allege that climate change has been exaggerated and deny that human activities have triggered it, scientists studying polar regions say humans are significant factors causing climate change.

Lee Won-sang, who began his Antarctic studies in 2006, said he had felt notable changes over 18 years during his yearly voyage to Antarctica.

Summerlike polar regions

The seashore of Antarctica where King Sejong Station is located was ice-free as temperatures rose to 18 and 20 degrees Celsius (64.4 and 68 degrees Fahrenheit) in 2021. [KOREA POLAR RESEARCH INSTITUTE]

In Greenland, researchers nowadays wear short-sleeve shirts while playing volleyball outside.

At King Sejong Station, a Korean research base in Antarctica, summertime temperatures reached between 18 and 20 degrees Celsius (64.4 and 68 degrees Fahrenheit) in 2021. Although the base's region is relatively warmer than other parts of Antarctica, observers speculate that such temperatures will likely be observed more frequently.

Lee said climate change in the Antarctic became severe in the early-2000s. “Nature shouldn't drastically change every ten years as a decade is a very short time in the planet's history,” Lee said.

Kim Ji-hoon, an Arctic researcher, also shed light on thinning glaciers and changes in marine species appearing in the region.

Kim has been exploring the Arctic since 2009, with 15 visits so far. Araon, the first Korean-built icebreaking and research vessel, is his base of operations.

Kim said a kind of squid that used to live in the northern Pacific while hatching was caught in the Arctic in September. According to academic research, a fully grown specimen of the same squid was also spotted deep in the Arctic Ocean. Kim believes rising ocean temperatures have driven some marine species to more northern habitats.

Kim said the sound of cracking ice has also changed because ice over four years old has largely disappeared.

The thunder-esque sound that echoed when the Araon broke old and thick ice is no longer heard. Today’s Arctic has only first-year ice that melts in summer and freezes in winter, he says.

Inaction on climate change was tantamount to “committing a crime against coming generations,” he said.

Melting glaciers

Araon, Korea's only ice-breaking research vessel, operates in a polar region. [KOREA POLAR RESEARCH INSTITUTE]

“Earth and its nature don't change drastically, and neither does the Antarctic,” Lee said, adding that changes should be subtle and unnoticeable. Lee pointed out that recent changes are visible even by satellite, with glacial crevasses growing wider and deeper. A crevasse is a crack in a glacier.

“In the Antarctic nowadays, helicopters can't land on spots where they landed a year ago because of the risk of breaking the ice,” Lee said. “This shouldn't happen in the Antarctic.”

Lee has been to the Antarctic for 15 times. He said the Thwaites Glacier — frequently dubbed the " Doomsday Glacier" — functions like a cork in a bottle by preventing mass melting of icebergs and ice sheets in the southwestern Antarctic. However, it is shrinking by 200 meters (656 feet) annually. He noted that Antarctica's melting ice increased six-fold from 40 years ago.

He said the rapid melting of glaciers can increase sea levels.

Antarctica is 60 times larger than the Korean Peninsula, accounting for 10 percent of Earth's landmass. A full-scale meltdown of Thwaites Glacier could increase the sea level by 65 centimeters (25 inches), possibly submerging lowland territories. Consequently, people residing in affected areas would be forced to migrate en masse as refugees.

Lee Won-sang and his colleagues conduct field research on Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier in January 2024. [KOREA POLAR RESEARCH INSTITUTE]

Lee also warned that melting glaciers — composed of freshwater — would negatively affect oceanic current circulation, which is powered by cold saltwater. When low-density freshwater blankets relatively high-density seawater, oceanic currents slow, potentially damaging heat transfer systems worldwide.

Kim said carbon dioxide emissions would accelerate if icebergs and ice sheets melt more rapidly.

“Forests absorb half of released carbon dioxide while the ocean swallows the rest," Kim said. The colder the ocean is, the higher the oceanic absorption rates become. Warmer oceans affect global carbon circulation.

Regarding claims that climate change does not result from human activities, Lee cited the fifth and sixth assessment reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The fifth report in 2014 concluded that human influence on climate systems was evident, while the sixth report in 2023 said it was "unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land.”

Lee said humans are significant catalysts of climate change, adding the scientific evidence for this profound. “Total carbon dioxide emissions dropped significantly during global economic recessions and the pandemic,” Lee said.

If we liken Earth to a living creature, reports from the IPCC would be regular checkups done by the world’s leading doctors and physicians. Earth’s surface temperature has risen by 1.09 degrees Celsius compared to the preindustrial years between 1850 and 1900.

Lee compared those who treat climate change as a myth to people who rely on folk remedies instead of scientific diagnosis and treatment. “Although folk remedies can be occasionally effective, people cannot deny the efficacy of scientific treatments,” Lee said.

Lee said he hopes Earth will remain the same over the next two to three decades. But he warned, “Earth is piling up cumulative consequences that will come back to haunt humanity.”

BY SPECIAL REPORTING TEAM [[email protected]]