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One of the most dramatic effects of climate change can be seen in the arctic, where the ice fields are getting smaller.
There have been warm and cold periods affecting the polar ice caps throughout history and prehistory. There was a warm period (around 3 degrees Celsius higher than now) from 5000BCE to 1000BCE, followed by a colder period to 600CE. There was then a warm period (almost 2 degrees warmer than now) until 1200CE.
In Europe there was then a mini-ice age which lasted until around 1800CE. These are natural changes in global climate. Some people think climate change happening now is also part of a natural cycle. Most scientists, however, think human influences, such as carbon dioxide production, are the main cause of what is now happening to the world’s climate.
The Arctic Climates Impact Assessment report was produced in 2004. It identified the production of greenhouse gases (like CO2) as increasing the effects of natural cycles in causing a rise in global temperatures, and increased melting of the polar ice caps.
Below the ice caps there is a region called the Arctic Tundra. The sub-soil in tundra regions is often frozen all year round, and is therefore called permafrost. In Greenland, the world’s largest island, the Arctic Tundra hardly ever gets above five degrees Celsius in the summer. The ecosystem in Greenland is made up of plants and animals which are adapted to these low temperatures.
As the ice caps melt and recede, so does the permafrost area which leads to even higher emissions of Methane. Rising temperatures in the Arctic Tundra are putting pressure on the natural vegetation and animal populations such as the Arctic fox and wolf, the wolverine, and reindeer (caribou). Animals which are adapted for warmer climates are now competing with the tundra species, and replacing them as they are better adapted for the higher temperatures.
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