Arctic Resilience Report, Briefly.

Newspapers today have embraced the concept of a tipping point almost entirely. Whether that be because ‘slow gradual decline’ doesn’t quite have the same grip as ‘beginning of downward doom spiral’ or whether it be as a result of the Arctic Council. The Independent, The Guardian, The Daily Mail. All major newspapers and all spreading the word that we have passed or are rapidly approaching a tipping point in the Arctic. However, many scientists disagree. It is a contested topic however the Arctic Council seem pretty conclusive in its 2016 Arctic Resilience Report. Being made up of the 8 Arctic nations it provides an academic balance of researchers in addressing 19 of the current threatening 'regime shifts' including that of the Arctic Sea Ice, Thermohaline System and the Greenland Ice Sheet. Conclusively however, they state they exist, and that these regime shifts are not catastrophic. In terms of Arctic Sea Ice, Zhang and Walsh (2006) propose that there are counter-mechanisms that will halt a further regime shift beyond ice-free summers. A note of concern is that the report states that changes in the Greenland Ice Sheet that were thought of as being millennial shifts are occurring on a decadal scale. Due to the size of the sheet no immediate threat is posed, yet we should take note at the severity of the forcing is a result of anthropogenic influence.