Record Low Winter Sea Ice In The Arctic Signals Climate Change Crisis

The extent of sea ice blanketing the Arctic this winter fell to the lowest level on record, researchers announced this week an ominous signal about the effects of climate change in the worlds fastest-warming region.

March is usually the peak season for Arctic sea ice after months of ceaseless polar darkness, conditions are frigid and much of the ocean is frozen over. But just 5.53 million square miles of ice had formed as of March 22 this year - the smallest maximum extent in the 47-year satellite record, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Since then, the ice has already begun to melt again.

Sea ice is acting like the old canary in the coal mine, Dartmouth University geophysicist Don Perovich said. Its saying loud and clear that warming is occurring.

The record comes at a grim time for ice in all corners of the globe. In Antarctica, which has historically been more isolated from the effects of human-caused warming, sea ice shrank this month to the second-lowest extent on record. Research published in the journal Nature in February found that Earths glaciers are dwindling at an accelerating rate.

In the Arctic, this years maximum ice extent was 31,000 square miles smaller than the previous record, Perovich said - representing enough lost ice to cover the entire state of South Carolina. Compared to the 1981-2010 average, the missing ice area is greater than California, Texas and Washington combined.