How a warming climate is changing Svalbard at an unprecedented rate
"We are losing the Svalbard we know. We are losing the Arctic as we know it because of climate change."
By
Reuters -
September 5, 2019
5130
Since 1970, average annual temperatures have risen by 4 degrees Celsius in Svalbard, with winter temperatures rising more than 7 degrees, according to a report released by the Norwegian Centre for Climate Services in February.
The “Climate in Svalbard 2100” report also warns that the annual mean air temperature in Svalbard is projected to increase by 7 to 10 degrees Celsius by the end of this century.
Since 1979, the Arctic sea ice extent has declined by nearly 12 percent per decade, with the most pronounced winter reduction in the Svalbard and Barents Sea area. That’s not good news for Svalbard’s main town, Longyearbyen, which — with a population of slightly more than 2,000 people — is the northernmost town on the planet.
The town of Longyearbyen is seen in the late evening light in Svalbard, Norway, August 4, 2019. (Hannah McKay / Reuters)
A reindeer grazes on land in the town of Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway, August 4, 2019. (Hannah McKay / Reuters)
A miner works inside the Gruve 7 mine, the only remaining operational coal mine on Svalbard, Norway, August 7, 2019. (Hannah McKay / Reuters)
Children play at the skatepark in the town of Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway, August 4, 2019. (Hannah McKay / Reuters)
White wooden gravestones at risk of landslides due to the thawing permafrost underneath the ground, stand at the side of a mountain in the Longyearbyen cemetery in the town of Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway, August 3, 2019. (Hannah McKay / Reuters)
Interim Vicar, Ivar Smedsrod consoles Polish visitor Wieslaw Sawicki after a mass at the Svalbard Church in the town of Longyearbyen, in Svalbard, Norway, August 4, 2019. Wieslaw Sawicki’s son Michal worked as a geophysicist at the Polish Polar Research Station in Hornsund on the southern side of Svalbard. The Polish scientist and meteorologist Anna Gorska died when they fell from a mountain in May. Michal, 44, was an experienced mountaineer, scientist and explorer on his fifth stint for the institute in the Arctic. “Unfortunately, there was a huge snow cornice which looked like it was part of the peak of the mountain,” said Sawicki, who was visiting Longyearbyen to meet with the governor of the archipelago. “It collapsed with them; they both fell into the abyss.” (Hannah McKay / Reuters)
A sign warns of the danger from polar bears in the town of Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway, August 3, 2019. (Hannah McKay / Reuters)
A woman poses next to a polar bear mural in the town of Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway, August 6, 2019. (Hannah McKay / Reuters)
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