The coastlines surrounding the Arctic Circle could be covered in green by the year 2050 if current global warming trends continue, and let’s face it, those trends are going to continue.

A new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change says shifts in Arctic vegetation are inevitable at this rate, and the artic climate is changing twice as fast as the rest of the world.

The researchers used computer modeling to see how vegetation would shift, based on the rising temperature and the change of precipitation.  Trees and upright shrubs will increase by more than 50 percent, which isn’t good for animal species such as ground-nesting birds that need the wide-open tundra of Alaska, Siberia, Canada, et al for their habitat. 

From space, that will change the color of the region from white to green and brown.  That’s important, because the white polar ice caps reflect sunlight back into space, which maintains the balance.  But the darker colors will absorb that energy and hasten the warming process.

The new trees won’t offset this effect by gobbling up increased carbon in the atmosphere, because the kind of trees and shrubs that live in the cooler regions absorb atmospheric carbon relatively slowly.

All that means the polar climate will warm, melting the ice cap, which will raise ocean levels over the entire planet.