Arctic Loses a Quarter-Million Square Miles of Sea Ice After Record Low Announced in August

Press Release
September 20, 2012 11:02 AM

In just two weeks since the all-time record for lowest extent of Arctic summer sea ice was broken the Arctic has lost an additional and astonishing 260,000 more square miles of sea ice, the area of France.

On August 26th scientists from NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center announced that Arctic sea ice extent had crashed through the previous record low set in 2007 by as much as 27,000 square miles, slightly more than the area of West Virginia. On September 16, as the melting season finally came to a close, more than quarter-million additional square miles of sea ice had melted away.

Arctic sea ice naturally grows during winters and shrinks during the spring and summer. However, for the past thirty years, satellite data has shown a 13% decline per decade of the minimum summer Arctic sea ice...

Source: Arctic Loses a Quarter-Million Square Miles of Sea Ice After Record Low Announced in August
Author: Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development

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