Environment

Arctic Sea Ice Drops to Record Levels

by Amy Judd | August 27, 2008 at 01:34 pm

257 views | 4 Recommendations | 6 comments

Again, and this is not surprising, but still important, arctic ocean sea ice has now melted to the second lowest minimum since scientists started observing the melting ice.

The previous record was set in 2005, as the second lowest melting point, but this past Monday has exceeded that.

With several weeks left in the melt season, ice in summer 2008 has a chance to diminish below the record low set last year, according to scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Environmental groups said the ice melt was another alarm bell warning of global warming.

"It's an unfortunate sign that climate change is coming rapidly to the Arctic and that we really need to address the issue of global warming on a national level," said Christopher Krenz, Arctic project manager for Oceana.

"This is not surprising but it is alarming," said Deborah Williams, a former Interior Department special assistant for Alaska. "This was a relatively cool summer, and to have ice decrease to the second lowest minimum on record demonstrates that global warming's ongoing impact is profound."

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PlanMyGreen

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 14:55 on August 27th, 2008

amyjudd, I like this story. It's good stuff. Unfortunately this almost isn't news anymore. I can only imagine the next report will look even bleaker. Whether you agree or not that global warming is caused by humans, climate change is defiantely problematic for species that have adapted to the past environment that is disappearing. Now is the time to start putting all the environmental talk into action.

Emilio Lizardo

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 15:11 on August 27th, 2008

amyjudd, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Good one, Amy.

One of the problems with our 'data', stuff like sea temperatures, salinity, atmospheric CO2, upper atmospheric ozone levels, etc. - it only goes back maybe 200 years max. And only that far in very exceptional cases ...

Things like global warming and cooling cycles happen in geologic time-scales - way longer time periods than just a century or two.

All this melting of the polar ice - ozone depletion, CO2 levels ... there just isn't enough data to make any conclusions with any degree of confidence ...

My own feeling is that it is significant that other planets in our solar system seem to be showing signs of their own global warming as well ...

Maybe our sun is just warming up a little ( but, hopefully not too much, thank you ... ) ?

Diego Cupolo

at 16:07 on August 27th, 2008

My name is Diego Cupolo and I'm an environmental journalist - I took this picture of Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska. Part of the massive Harding Ice Field, the glacier has receded more than a 1000 feet in the last 10 years.

Diegocup1 has contributed a photo to this story.

Gary Jordan

at 03:49 on August 28th, 2008

During the helicoptor flight out of Ilulissat, Greenland we flew over the rapidly receeding ice cap and witnessed huge city block size chunks of ice breaking off and fallling into fjord where they would drift out into the currents that would push them south to melt.

(check out my pictures of Disko Bay - 20 years ago that stayed frozed most of the year - now it doesn't even freeze over in the winter.)

Gary Jordan has contributed a photo to this story.

angus.duncan

at 16:15 on September 1st, 2008

A view inside one of the numerous meltwater channels on the Belcher Glacier, Devon Island ice cap. These conduits, up to 10m deep, open in the summer and are fed by melting snow and ice, transporting huge volumes of freshwater to the Arctic Ocean.

This photo was taken at the end of the summer melt in 2008 when the water flow in the channel had all but ceased.

angus.duncan has contributed a photo to this story.

sissel3344

at 03:20 on September 14th, 2008

This photo was taken on the plane from Tromsø to Longyearbyen, March 1. 2004.
You can just see the open ocean disappearing in the lower right corner. We had just passed the Bear Island, where the floating ice had set around the shores, and the currents had formed an elegant tail eastwards.
It was a cold day, and we expected full use of our wool underwear during our stay. Instead we woke up to + 5'C and soft rain, and the heavy clouds made the faint daylight even darker.
But the views from our flight stays in my memory, and new information of the rapidly melting polar ice make me fear the changes in our environment.

sissel3344 has contributed a photo to this story.