8The North Pole Is An Icy Fortress
According to the US Navy and their research on the Arctic, the North Pole could be completely ice-free as early as 2016. That’s 84 years sooner than other estimates have projected, and that means Santa’s toy factory and summer home is going to make even less sense than it currently does.
The Navy’s estimates are based on the average temperature of the Arctic warming much faster than the temperature around the rest of the world. Other organizations, like the Ocean Institute at the University of Western Australia, agree.
The massive jump in melting at Santa’s lair is partially because of methane released into the atmosphere due to further ice melting at the East Siberia Arctic shelf. The methane was once sealed in by the permafrost there, but with its release, the temperature at even the deepest depths we’re measuring is significantly rising.
The numbers are pretty staggering. Since 1980, the Arctic has lost about 40 percent of its sea ice. Pretty soon, we’ll have to come up with a new story for where Santa lives—along with having to deal with some rather more serious consequences of the melting ice cap.
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