Fire And Ice: Linking Intense Wildfire And The Melting Arctic

Short Wave

NPR

Nature, News, Astronomy, Science, Daily News, Life Sciences

4.7 • 6.5K Ratings

🗓️ 21 April 2023

⏱️ 12 minutes

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Summary

In the Arctic Ocean, sea ice is shrinking as the climate heats up. In the Western U.S., wildfires are getting increasingly destructive. Those two phenomena are thousands of miles apart, but scientists are uncovering a surprising connection. The ice is connected to weather patterns that reach far across North America. And as the climate keeps changing and sea ice shrinks, Western states could be seeing more extreme weather, the kind that fuels extreme wildfires.

Check out the full series about how melting ice affects us all: npr.org/icemelt.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:05.0	Happy Friday Shortwaveers, Emily Quanker.
0:07.5	So all of this week we have been following ice,
0:11.0	tracing the contours of how our entire planet
0:14.4	is connected by frozen water
0:16.7	and how the world's melting ice sheets and glaciers
0:19.7	can a far reaching impacts as the climate changes.
0:23.4	When you're done with this episode,
0:24.6	I highly encourage you to listen to episodes one and two
0:28.2	to get the full scientific picture.
0:30.8	Today, I am joined by Lauren Summer
0:33.1	from NPR's Climate Desk with a tale of ice
0:36.2	that begins in Alaska in my former home
0:38.9	where I was a reporter for several years.
0:41.2	Hey, Lauren.
0:42.0	Oh, that's right.
0:42.8	Yeah.
0:43.6	And we're actually going to a small village called Katsubu.
0:47.3	I know Katsubu.
0:48.3	Yeah, it is far north on the coast of Alaska,
0:50.7	really tight-knit community.
0:52.4	It's an amazing place.
	...

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