Chris Mooney of the Washington Post discussed the latest observations of sea ice extent in the Arctic and Antarctic in a recent article which you can read here. Contrary to slowly increasing levels of sea ice in the Antarctic Ocean, this year the sea ice extent there dropped precipitously. Since ice extent in the Arctic also decreased, as it has done for a number of years now, the combined effect was an unprecedented loss of sea ice coverage globally. No one has ever seen this before and scientists are not sure exactly how it will affect global weather patterns.
The Post also noted that the rapid decline of the sea ice has caused the writer of the Arctic Sea Ice Blog a lot of consternation, making it hard for him to continue writing about the alarming situation there. It’s a sad and interesting story: you can read it here.
