Arctic Sea Ice Lowest in 800 Years
A plethora of corroborative data shows that this year’s sea ice levels in the Arctic are the lowest seen in 800 years.
The new research, published in the journal Climate Dynamics, doesn’t specify a cause or reason for the retreat, but it does note that if sea ice melt continues at this level, it’s likely that the North Pole will be completely ice-free during the summer months within a few decades.
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The results were reached after putting together data from a wide variety of sources. Detailed information was collected about the climate from ice cores from an ice cap on Svalbard– an island archipelago in the Arctic Ocean– and from the annual growth rings of trees in Finland. The scientists also combed through harbor records and logbooks of ships that traveled the area to record human observation of sea ice levels.
“We see that the sea ice is shrinking to a level which has not been seen in more than 800 years,” said Aslak Grinsted, one of the study’s researchers. Furthermore, even though there was a warming period 800 years ago and ice levels were comparatively low then, current ice level retreat is unprecedented. By comparison, 20th century ice cover is still the thinnest on record. The study found that ice was thickest during the “Little Ice Age” of the 18th century.
While detailed comparisons have been difficult to make, it’s no surprise that sea ice levels have been exceedingly low over the last several decades– and getting worse. For instance, just last year the fabled Northwest Passage opened up for the first time in living memory. That could be good news for shipping and trading worldwide, but bad news for an entire Arctic ecosystem, including for animals like the polar bear, which rely on thick year-long ice cover.
Current projections suggest that the thinning ice could decimate polar bear populations by two thirds within the next 20 years, if not plummet the population to near extinction in the wild.
Source: LiveScience
Image Credit: mape_s on Flickr under a Creative Commons License
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Arctic ice is growing again. Climate is cyclic.
http://www.ijis.iarc.uaf.edu/en/home/seaice_extent.htm
Jimmy, I’m not sure I see your point relative to your link. The measurements claimed by that site only go back to 2002, and the chart itself only shows sea ice level changes over the course of a year.
So the upswing in the chart is only due to the fact that the chart ends as winter approaches. Of course sea ice levels are thicker in the winter than in the summer.
The issue is that this year– according to the data cited in the above article– sea ice levels are the worse they’ve ever been.
I’m not sure I see what would make you contend the opposite, other than perhaps dogma.
Hey! proof is not necessary here! Follow the money for the thread logic. Leftist liberal government hogs want large increase in taxes-people will believe anything they are told-the sky is falling- Oblamo says no new taxes on the middle class- Gore says I’ll show you how to do it, and get more filthy rich in the process. I guess they had a huge problem with Global Warming 800 years ago, why the hell didn’t they fix it then??
“Sea ice melting and re-freezing is a complicated process that is influenced by a number of factors such as wind patterns, ocean currents, and how much ice has frozen or melted in recent years. The authors did not point to any causes for the changes in sea ice levels in their study.” In other words they don’t know.
Lowest in 800 years! Hmm, I wonder if they needed cap and trade back then too!
This is more Al Gore “Global Warming” Fear mongering rhetoric. Please put an end to this dis info, and stop forcing us to pay taxes in breathing, and using everyday essentials. Thanks to sites like this, and people like you, cap and trade aka cap and tax every facet of life has passed. Also, I hope you enjoy your routinely home inspectors paying you a visit to make sure your house/appliances “meet cap and trade standards” and if not, you’ll be fined $2,000 per day you stay in your own house. “Hope” and “Change” you all failed to invest and research into, enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9FX1fojAJM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVlF_ltkqp8
PS. Polar bears are the swimming land mammal, and they aren’t “running out of ice”, that’s how they hunt, they move from ice sheet to ice sheet.
Please look up cloud seeding.
Its a process that has existed since the 1970s that china used during the Olympics to clean the air.
You environmentalists will be implementing these technologies to fight global climate change but in reality you are lying about a problem in order to get a global currency based on Carbon taxes and make profits off the cloud seeding technology which can create rain.
and polar bears can swim. You know this but continue to use the picture of them to further your brainwashing of uneducated people you wish to scam.
Just explain Cloud Seeding and who makes money off that technology…they used it in the Chinese Olympics so you can’t deny it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfHW7KR33IQ
Al Gore sued by over 30.000 Scientists and the founder of the weather channel for Global Warming fraud.
Man made global warming is a hoax that is being used to usher in the biggest tax we have ever seen. Co2 is not a deadly gas, plants breath it and make O2 that we need. THE SUN HEATS THE EARTH. 9th grade earth science people. By the way look up the company Gore and Blood. That’s right the “carbon credits” used to combat global warming HAHAHA. They are paid to AL GORE. HE IS A CON MAN THAT IS ALL, he is not even very good at it.
Co2 makes plants grow.
Northwest Passage opened up for the first time in living memory????
Well I guess some people still remember 1944, when the RCMP vessel St Roch (pronounced “Saint Rock”)went through the Northwest Passage and The Russians did send convoys along the Northeast Passage during WWII.