Permafrost thaw: Evidence of a rapidly changing Arctic

Introduction

The Arctic is warming three to four times faster than the global average. Depending on future emission scenarios, average Arctic temperatures are expected to reach 3.3-10° above the 1985-2014 average by 2100. These rising temperatures will exacerbate a host of climate hazards, including wildfire, sea ice melt, coastal erosion, altered abundance and distributions of key Arctic species, and perhaps most significantly, permafrost thaw.