Fewer Reindeer, More Wildfires: Welcome To The Arctic In 2013
Reindeer Alexandre Buisse via Wikimedia Commons Summer sea ice in the Arctic got a respite this year, as did the Greenland ice sheet, because cooler summer temperatures prevented a repeat of 2012's record-setting melt. But the past seven summers have seen the lowest amounts of Arctic sea ice since satellite records began in 1979. These and other environmental conditions in the Arctic are detailed in the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration's (NOAA) annual “Arctic Report Card,” which the agency released Thursday at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco. "What happens in the Arctic doesn't stay in the Arctic." Overall, it's been “another year in the new normal,” said Army Corps of Engineers geophysicist Don Perovich, a contributor to the report. Scientists like Perovich are struggling to figure out what the new baselines are, as warming transforms the region. By...