The Arctic region has shifted from storing carbon dioxide to releasing it into the atmosphere, according to the 2024 Arctic Report Card released by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The report, authored by 97 scientists from 11 countries, documents widespread changes across the Arctic, from declining caribou populations to record-breaking temperatures. Scientists say this rapid warming is reshaping the region’s environmental and human systems. “It’s not particularly surprising, although it’s still really sobering,” Twila Moon, deputy lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado Boulder and an editor of this year’s report, told Mongabay. The Arctic is Earth’s northernmost region, centered around the Arctic Ocean and surrounded by the lands of North America, Europe and Asia. The treeless tundra that rings the Arctic Ocean covers an area nearly twice the size of Alaska. This region has historically served as Earth’s freezer. Its permanently frozen ground, called permafrost, stores more than half of all the carbon stored in the Earth’s soil, which has accumulated over thousands of years. This map shows the Arctic’s average carbon balance from 2002-2020. Land areas colored purple were a source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. The darkest purple clusters show areas where there were large releases due to wildfires. Green areas had a negative carbon dioxide flux, meaning they were a “sink” that removed and stored atmospheric carbon dioxide. NOAA Climate.gov image based on the 2024 Arctic Report Card – Carbon Cycling “Think of it like…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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