"If it's not the weather bomb of extreme wind and snow that Britain is hunkering down for as I write, it's reports in the Guardian of reindeer in the Arctic struggling with the opposite problem: unnaturally warm weather leading to more rain that freezes to create a type of snow that they can't easily dig through with their hooves to reach food."
"As Britain's first sea lord, General Sir Gwyn Jenkins, has been telling anyone prepared to listen, the unfreezing of the north due to the climate crisis has triggered a ferocious contest in the defrosting Arctic for some time over resources, territory and strategically critical access to the Atlantic. To understand how that threatens northern Europe, look down at the top of a globe rather than at a map."
Unusually warm Arctic weather and rain-on-snow events are creating hard ice layers that prevent reindeer from reaching food, disrupting finely tuned Arctic ecosystems. Climate-driven shifts in weather increase risks of drought, flood, fire and storms that can force population movements and resource competition. Melting sea ice in the Arctic is opening access to resources, fisheries and new shipping routes over the top of the world. Strategic competition for territory and Atlantic access is intensifying as the north unfreezes. Forecasts predict near–ice-free summer conditions around the North Pole by the early 2040s, enabling shorter Asia–North America routes and raising risks of military and commercial conflict.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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