Page21 - Policy Paper

• Main Authors: Hubberten, Hans-Wolfgang, Lantuit, Hugues, Boike, Julia, Viitanen, Leena-Kaisa
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: Page21 Consortium 2016
• Subjects: Atmosphere; Cryosphere; Fauna; Oceans; Terrestrial; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Climate change; Global warming; Ice; permafrost; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://library.arcticportal.org/2303/; http://library.arcticportal.org/2303/1/PAGE21_Policy_Paper.pdf

During the past few decades climate change has become the major environmental issue of our time. Not only scientists, but also the general public and the politicians that represent them, are increasingly faced with the effects of climate change on our planet. Observations show that the impacts of climate change are felt more rapidly in the Arctic than over the rest of the globe. Initially, it was the melting polar ice sheets and the retreat of the sea ice in the Arctic Ocean that captured the most interest, but now the thawing of the permafrost layer is also seen as an increasingly important issue, with serious consequences on climate feedbacks. Today, climate warming and the consequent reactivation of the immense currently frozen carbon reservoir in the permafrost, have become one of the main topics in climate research. Traditionally in Europe, permafrost research mostly concentrated on mountainous areas. The increasing interest in global warming, however, has resulted in geographically broader EUfunded initiatives, of which the latest is the PAGE21 project. PAGE21, “Changing permafrost in the Arctic and its Global Effects in the 21st Century” brought together all major European permafrost research institutes as well as leading North American and Asian permafrost research groups. This grouping makes the project one of the first truly circumpolar permafrost research initiatives. The project adopted an inter-disciplinary approach towards data collection and analyses, combining field measurements with remotely sensed satellite data and global climate models. The output from the analyses helps us to advance understanding of permafrost processes at multiple scales, resulting in improvements in global climate modelling and the ensuing future climate projections. It has been a great pleasure to lead this research consortium and I am very proud of the advancement the project has been able to make in permafrost, and more broadly, in climate science. The rapid changes that are occurring in the Arctic require a flexible ...