Record Arctic Ice Loss
A serious indictment that Global Warming is actually worse than most people realize was the extent of the 2012 annual loss of Arctic Sea Ice, which probably was reached on September 16th.
Graphic Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center
This year exceed the previous record loss of 2007 and sets a new record for the lowest summer coverage of ice ever since data has been collected during the 33-year satellite record. In addition a 2011 study published in Nature journal, used ice cores and lake sediments to reconstruct sea ice extent in the Arctic over the last 1,450 years, and concluded that the most recent record exceeds those records as well.
According to last large international multidisciplinary research collaboration on of how climate in the Arctic and Antarctic is changing, which was accomplished in 2009 by over 10,000 scientists from 60 nations concluded that the Arctic will soon become seasonally ice free.
“This will cause profound consequences for the Arctic cryosphere,
marine and terrestrial ecosystems and human activities. Both the atmosphere and the ocean circulation and stratification (ventilation) will also be affected. This raises a critical set of issues, with many important implications potentially able to speed up melting of the Greenland ice sheet, accelerating the rise in sea-levels and slowing down the world ocean conveyor belt. That would also have a lot of consequences on the ocean carbon sink and ocean acidification.” Source: IPY 2009
2012 compared to previous record Arctic Ice Extents
The big picture also from IPY 2009: “Accelerated shrinking of mountain glaciers on every continent, rapid reduction of Arctic sea-ice, disintegration of floating ice shelves, and increased melt rates of Earth’s three Ice Sheets—Greenland, West Antarctic, and East Antarctic—provide compelling evidence of our changing climate.”
Everyone will just have to wait and see if the record loss of Arctic ice will continue next year as well. Fortunately melting Arctic sea ice does not raise sea levels as it is already floating in the ocean–however, the same can NOT be said for receding glacier ice and the land-based ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica!
Green-Eco-EV News Reporting by Ken Green Burridge
Kenneth Burridge test-drives electric Nissan LEAF in Melbourne Australia
EV of the Year Judge, independent green journalist, photographer, author and sustainability activist that has published over 1000 articles. Mr Burridge’s travels have taken him to over 30 countries and 300+ major cities. He is originally from the USA, but has been residing in Australia for the last seven years. Connect to Ken Burridge on: Twitter, facebook, Google+, Linked in or website
