There is less sea ice in the Arctic than ever before recorded, thanks in part to a warm, sunny summer, a climate scientist said today. And the melting season isn't even over.
On Sunday the sea ice extent was measured at 1.93 million square miles (5.01 million square kilometers).
"It's continuing to go down at a rapid pace," said Mark Serreze, a senior scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado.
The previous minimum recordset on September 21, 2005was 2.05 million square miles (5.32 million square kilometers).
By the end of this summer, scientists at the center say, Arctic sea ice may drop below 1.74 million square miles (4.5 million square kilometers).
Bruno Tremblay is an assistant professor of ocean and atmospheric sciences at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, who is planning a research cruise to the Russian Arctic in September.
In preparation for the trip, he has been observing updated maps of the sea ice extent, which show the quickly melting ice.
"I never thought it would go that low that fast," Tremblay said. "There's still a month of melting in front of us, and we're already past the record of 2005."
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/08/070820-global-warming.html
On Sunday the sea ice extent was measured at 1.93 million square miles (5.01 million square kilometers).
"It's continuing to go down at a rapid pace," said Mark Serreze, a senior scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado.
The previous minimum recordset on September 21, 2005was 2.05 million square miles (5.32 million square kilometers).
By the end of this summer, scientists at the center say, Arctic sea ice may drop below 1.74 million square miles (4.5 million square kilometers).
Bruno Tremblay is an assistant professor of ocean and atmospheric sciences at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, who is planning a research cruise to the Russian Arctic in September.
In preparation for the trip, he has been observing updated maps of the sea ice extent, which show the quickly melting ice.
"I never thought it would go that low that fast," Tremblay said. "There's still a month of melting in front of us, and we're already past the record of 2005."
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/08/070820-global-warming.html
I think you missed it DavidW, if Greenland was dubbed that because of its landscape, and now its covered in ice, that would lead one to maybe think that climate changes are a normal process of this fine planet. 