Arctic sea ice vanishing: NASA

The Arctic in 2005 saw little renewal of the thick, perennial sea ice that normally melts and is replenished every year, a NASA study has found. Renewing the layer is crucial to maintaining the summer ice cover's stability, and the new findings suggest it may continue to decrease by as much as 10 per cent a year. "The area of seasonal ice that survives the summer may no longer be large enough to sustain a stable perennial ice cover, especially in the face of accelerating climate warming and Arctic sea ice thinning." Perennial ice coverage was 14 per cent lower in January 2006 than it was at the same time in 2005 — only about four per cent of the 2.5 million square kilometers of seasonal ice formed the previous winter survived the summer. The depletion of the sea ice was also affected by ABNORMAL wind conditions that resulted in about seven per cent of the perennial ice coverage area migrating out of the Arctic — an UNUSUALLY HIGH amount.