The Polar Regions - The End of the Eternal Ice (FOTO)

Hamburg/Kiel (ots) -

The new »World Ocean Review 6«, published by mare in cooperation with the German
Marine Research Consortium and the Future Ocean Network in Kiel, focuses on the
dramatic climate-induced changes in the Arctic and Antarctic and their
far-reaching consequences for humans and the environment.

The polar regions play an exceptional role in the Earth's climate system. The
almost endless snow and ice surfaces of the Arctic and Antarctic act like a
gigantic mirror and radiate up to 90 percent of incident sunlight back into
space. Because of this, they not only slow down the warming of the Earth, but
also create large temperature differences between the cold polar regions and the
warm tropics. This disparity, in turn, drives the global wind and ocean currents
and contributes significantly to the fact that the heat stored in the sea and in
the atmosphere is distributed over large areas of the globe and that people,
animals and plants find reliable living conditions everywhere in the world. What
happens in the remote polar regions is therefore of concern to each and every
one of us. Numerous demonstrations not only by climate activists and worldwide
Fridays for Future protests in recent months have impressively pointed out that
such reliable living conditions are not self-evident but can only be understood
as the result of a forward-looking, intergenerational and environmentally
conscious policy.

The sixth volume of the publication »World Ocean Review« (WOR), published with
the support of the International Ocean Institute (IOI), is therefore entitled
»The Arctic and Antarctic - extreme, climatically crucial and in crisis«. It is
edited by climate and polar researchers from the German Marine Research
Consortium (KDM), the Future Ocean research network in Kiel and the magazine
mare, who are responsible for the overall concept and preparing the scientific
contents in a way that is comprehensible to the public. As a bundling of the
expertise of German marine research, the new issue is dedicated to these two
extreme and highly contrasting regions of the Earth. The issue provides profound
information on their origin and significance for life on Earth, as well as on
the observed climatic changes and their dramatic consequences, some of which
extend far beyond the borders of the polar regions.

»Until a few years ago, the Arctic and Antarctic realms were destinations of
historical expeditions such as those of Scott or Amundsen and home to polar
bears or penguins,« says Nikolaus Gelpke, editor of »WOR«, founder of the
magazine mare and board member of the International Ocean Institute (IOI).
»Since the new IPCC special report 'Ocean and Cryosphere in Climate Change',
however, we have known about the outstanding importance of the polar regions for
our climate future. The observed changes are symbols for the consequences of our
industrial development, the melting of the formerly eternal ice stands for the
loss of control of our actions. Our 'WOR', as an excellent complement to the
IPCC special report, can hopefully help to deepen our understanding of
cause-and-effect relationships«.

The Arctic is warming more than twice as fast as the rest of the world and is
now showing a whole new face. Last summer alone, the world witnessed the
widespread burning of dried out tundra areas in Alaska and Siberia, the melting
of the Greenlandic ice sheet on its surface during a heat wave, and the
shrinking of the Arctic Ocean's sea ice cover to the second smallest residual
area since satellite measurements began. In the Antarctic, heat comes mainly
from the sea. Warm currents increasingly penetrate under the floating ice
tongues of West and East Antarctica and melt these so-called ice shelves from
below. As a result, not only do more icebergs calve, the glaciers now also
transport more ice from the interior of Antarctica to the sea, so that their
contribution to global sea-level rise increases and the ice sheets of West and
East Antarctica thin out overall.

But what consequences do these and other climatic changes have for the highly
adapted flora and fauna of the Arctic and Antarctic? What are the chances of
survival for polar bears, walruses, polar cod, krill and all other sea dwellers
who depend on sea ice for their foraging and breeding? How does the vegetation
change on land? »WOR 6« explains the unique adaptation strategies of polar flora
and fauna and the extent to which polar species are likely to be able to adapt
to rising air and water temperatures, dwindling food sources and migratory
competitors.

But where glaciers and sea ice are disappearing, people also gain access to
previously hidden resources and raw material deposits. The Arctic states in
particular therefore see climate change as an opportunity to develop their
northern territories economically. One focus is on the expansion of tourist
infrastructures such as airports and berths for cruise ships, because the
worldwide demand for trips to the polar regions is increasing - grotesquely,
above all, because many nature lovers and adventure tourists have come to the
conclusion that now is the last chance to see the ice landscapes of the Arctic
and Antarctic with their own eyes. At the same time, mining and oil companies
are currently investing large sums in the exploration and extraction of raw
material deposits in the Arctic, above all in Russia. »WOR 6« shows which
expectations are attached to this industrialization, which risks and dangers go
along with it and which protection precautions are taken.

»The developments in the polar regions illustrate one of the challenges for
ocean research to develop solutions across disciplines. The coming decade of
marine sciences for sustainable development, which aims to combine, increase and
make available knowledge in order to enable clever development paths in
human-ocean relations, gives us hope,« says Prof. Dr. Nele Matz-Lück,
spokesperson for the Future Ocean Network in Kiel and maritime law expert at the
Walther Schücking Institute for International Law at Kiel University. Germany is
one of the leading polar research nations in the world and operates research
stations, observatories and long-term measurement series in both the Arctic and
Antarctic. At the time of WOR publication, the ground-breaking international
Arctic expedition MOSAiC on the German polar research vessel Polarstern is also
in full swing. The icebreaker will be frozen in the sea ice and drift through
the central Arctic for about a year. In the meantime, researchers from 17
nations are collecting urgently needed data on the interactions between
atmosphere, ice, ocean and polar ecosystem.

»Polar research is climate research at the pulse of time, and once again German
polar, marine and coastal research is proving to be a signpost in the
international context,« says Prof. Dr. Ulrich Bathmann, Director of the Leibnitz
Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (IOW) and Chairman of the German
Marine Research Consortium.

The »World Ocean Review 6« was presented on 7th November 2019 at the
Schleswig-Holstein representation in Berlin during an evening event with guests
from politics, business, science, media and education.

Background

maribus gGmbH was founded in 2008 by mare publisher Nikolaus Gelpke. It serves
as a non-profit organisation for the purpose of sensitising the public to marine
science and contributing to more effective marine conservation. To date, about
170,000 printed copies of the »WOR« in German and English have been ordered and
distributed worldwide, in addition to countless online downloads.

»WOR 6« is being published with a total circulation of 20,000 copies. The
publication is not sold, but given away for free. There is no profit-making
intent. It is available at www.worldoceanreview.com. At the same time as the
printed edition, the entire publication will also be published online. In
addition to the German version, an English edition will also be available
shortly.

»World Ocean Review 6 - The Arctic and Antarctic - extreme, climatically crucial
and in crisis«, edited by maribus gGmbH, Hamburg 2019, 332 pages, with numerous
graphics and photographs, paperback.

Links
www.worldoceanreview.com
www.mare.de
www.deutsche-meeresforschung.de
www.futureocean.org

Contact:
maribus gGmbH
Bettina Wittich
Press and Public
phone: 0049-40-368076-22
E-mail: wittich@maribus.com

Friederike Balzereit
Kiel University
Kiel Marine Science (KMS) /
Future Ocean Network
Public Relations
Phone: 0049-431-880-3032
E-mail: fbalzereit@uv.uni-kiel.de

Original-Content von: maribus gGmbH, übermittelt durch news aktuell