The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) publishes reports on scenarios that will happen if we fail to lower our emissions. From the most recent special report, we learned that the Arctic and polar areas will experience considerable transformations as glaciers melt at an increasingly faster rate. The melting creates a massive amount of meltwater, which will have significant impact on rising sea levels.
But the report shows that polar areas also face other consequences. Let’s take, for example, the Arctic Ocean. It provides a habitat for many species. By 2100, it will freeze later in the year with thinner ice and leave those species without a sufficient habitat. Also by 2100, up to 80% of Scandinavian and Central European mountain glaciers might have vanished.