005 Climate Change and the Polar Regions

Climate change is a concept we encounter very often on different media and even in day-to-day conversations. As visitors to the Arctic we are brought to witness recent, dramatic glacial front retreats such as the one that revealed Blomstrandhalvøya and the variability in sea ice extent and thickness. Another term that is often used in connection with climate change is Albedo. Among the effects of climate change we have variations in sea level, the breaking off of large tabular icebergs from ice shelves such as the Larsen C shelf and changes in global ocean circulation. Curiously, variations in ocean circulation have been monitored by dedicated and opportunistic means, such as rubber ducks.