“From the Arctic sea ice to the Antarctic interior and the mountainous peaks of Peru, Alaska, and Tibet, ice is melting at an alarming rate. The accelerating loss of ice sheets, sea ice, and glaciers is one of the most powerful and striking indicators of a warming climate,” says Alexandra Giese, Staff Researcher of the Earth Policy Institute, in a recent release, “Ice Melting Faster Everywhere” “The most notable ice loss in recent years has been the shrinking of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean.”
From the beginning of the satellite record in 1979 through 1996, ice area decreased at a steady rate of 3 percent per decade in response to rising temperature. In the following decade, ice area decreased by 11 percent, reaching a dramatic minimum in 2007. In September of that year, sea ice occupied only 3.6 million square kilometers, an area 27 percent smaller than the previous record low (in 2005) and 38 percent smaller than the 1979—2007 average. Summer sea ice coverage has increased slightly in the last two years, but it is still far below the long-term average. [...]
Comment