Metacentricities

This is bad, really bad.

Quick summary: Last summer, the more Artic sea ice melted than has ever melted before. It has gotten past the point of no return - we likely can never put things back the way we found them.

The Artic is an especially critical area for two reasons. One - polar sea ice reflects the suns energy - the more ice, the more reflection, the less ice, the less reflection, thus more warming. It is a positive feedback loop - ice melting will accelerate - leading to even more warming.

The second thing is that the Artic Tundra ecosystem is a net carbon sink for our planet (one of the most important ones - one third of the soil-bound carbon on the planet is found here.) because of the permafrost. Plants that accumulate carbon (in the form of growth) don’t decompose when they die because of the frozen ground - they just accumulate. But as the permafrost melts, this ecosystem ceases to serve as the carbon sink that it is, and becomes a net carbon source, as the plants decompose.

Non-scientific summary: we’re screwed.

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