Arctic Ocean ice levels 18 percent smaller than previous record

This image made available by NASA shows the amount of summer sea ice in the Arctic on Sept. 16, 2012, at center in white, and the 1979 to 2000 average extent for the day shown, with the yellow line. / AP Photo/U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center

(CBS/AP) WASHINGTON - Ice in the Arctic Ocean has dwindled down to the lowest point in history, according to new reports.

The ice cap at the North Pole measured 1.32 million square miles on Sunday. That's 18 percent smaller than the previous record of 1.61 million square miles set in 2007, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado. Records go back to 1979 based on satellite tracking. Old records were smashed in a critical climate indicator showing an ever warming world.

Shrinking snow threatens seal lairs in Arctic

"On top of that, we're smashing a record that smashed a record," said data center scientist Walt Meier. Sea ice shrank in 2007 to levels 22 percent below the previous record of 2005.

Ice in the Arctic melts in summer and grows in winter, and it started growing again on Monday. In the 1980s, Meier said, summer sea ice would cover an area slightly smaller than the mainland. U.S. Now it is about half that.

Man-made global warming has melted more sea ice and made it thinner over the last couple decades with it getting much more extreme this year, surprisingly so, said snow and ice data center director Mark Serreze.

"Recently the loss of summer ice has accelerated and the six lowest September ice extents have all been in the past six years," Serreze said. "I think that's quite remarkable."

Serreze said except for one strong storm that contributed to the ice loss, this summer melt was more from the steady effects of day-to-day global warming. But he and others say the polar regions are where the globe first sees the signs of climate change.

"Arctic sea ice is one of the most sensitive of nature's thermometers," said Jason Box, an Ohio State University polar researcher.

What happens in the Arctic changes climate all over the rest of the world, scientists have reported in studies.

The ice in the Arctic "essentially acts like an air conditioner by keeping things cooler," Meier said. And when sea ice melts more, it's like the air conditioner isn't running efficiently, he said.

Sea ice reflects more than 90 percent of the sun's heat off the Earth, but when it is replaced by the darker open ocean, more than half of the heat is absorbed into the water, Meier said.

The melting ice is also affecting the wildlife in the area. Scientists are concerned that Arctic-dwelling ringed seals, who usually need 8 inches of snow to create caves to keep their pups warm, won't have enough cover, LifeScience reported. Arctic ice isn't expected to form until later in the season, which means that even if there is supposed to be an increase in snowfall mid-Winter it might just fall directly into the sea. Scientists predict that during the 21st century ringed seals will lose about 70 percent of the area with enough snow to create their caves.

Scientists at the snow and ice data center said their computer models show an Arctic that would be essentially free of ice in the summer by 2050, but they add that current trends show ice melting faster than the computers are predicting.

[liebeist1000]

On the warming of our world!
Ice breaking ships breaking Ice in the North Polar Sea, Barents sea, North west passage, and other ice covered seas and bays every year later in the in the beginning of the freezing season and ever sooner toward the end of the winter allows the warmth of the under lying waters circulating up from the equator to abnormally escape into the polar region adding to the warming problem!
Also the sun warms up the darker water that is exposed as the result of the ice breaking ships and other ships.
Solution stop ice breaking period!
No ifs ands or buts!
You don't believe Consult the ocean experts

[randomites]

Folks let's face it, we're pretty much fu#ked.

[No-soup-for-you]

by EmpireGeorge______
RetiredArmy_Nurse, , and you are a clueless stupid liberal.

-----------

Oh, come on, Empire - you're the biggest lib on this board - you just won't admit it to yourself. You're a SOCIAL conservative, surely, but nothing more than that.

"how about I know what I'm talking about" - classic!

[betterusa]

Since recorded weather is only a little over 150 years old, you would think the "global warming scientists" would acknowledge Earth history. The present pattern of ice ages began about 40 million years ago and intensified 3 million years ago. Scientists believe the Polar Regions continue going in repeated cycles of glaciations and thaw, repeating every 40,000-100,000 years. The last glacial period of the current ice age ended about 10,000 years ago. According to earth history, we will not see another ice age any time soon but will see the earth continue to get warmer for at least another 10 thousand years.
So for all the "alarmists", we cannot stop warming or cooling of the earth no matter how much money they try to collect or greatly reduce the use of fossil fuels.

[No-soup-for-you]

Of course it changes on its own.

Doesn't mean we aren't nudging it in one direction or the other, though, unless you think humanity has no effect on the planet at all.

[EmpireGeorge______--]

Why doesn't any of these warming baggers understand things from a planetary perspective, as you have so eloquently stated ?? all they see is liberalism, 24/7, Alarmists, closed minds made up.

[RetiredArmy_Nurse]

Just to pop in here to point out that bmallen makes a lot of stuff up. He is a neocon troll here to spout the party line. I'll assume that they pay him to do so. It's a sad state for the educational level of our society when science becomes political.

[EmpireGeorge______--]

Let's see, we have the following major impacts on temperature

Sun 10,000 degrees F
Volcano Eruptions 2,120 Degrees F
Wildfires 4,000 Degrees F
Earth Core (Mantle) 1,652 Degrees F

But yet according to liberal Global Warming Baggers, NONE of these have any impact on raising earth's surface temperature by 1/2 of a degree (NOAA figures), but man, with cars and factories alone do.....think libs, it's not hard.

[RetiredArmy_Nurse]

The science is in on global cooking. It is real and it will change life on earth with extreme prejudice towards man. EmpireGeorge is another neocon poster. He talks a big smoke screen, but little of it is factual. When he goes to school, gets 4 degrees, 3 of them in science like me, then we might give credence to something he says.

[EmpireGeorge______--]

RetiredArmy_Nurse, how about I know what I'm talking about, and you are a clueless stupid liberal.

"The science is in".....what the hell does that mean ? did you not learn in all your "3 science degrees" that scientific method requires questioning, inquiry, doubting, re-testing, checking again......it DOESN'T mean, just gobble up the liberal agenda on global warming, as though it's a closed book.....your mind is closed, to other contributors to our climate changes, such as planetary, etc......so don't assume that just because you were a nurse, that everyone else is a dumb lib like you.

[joeblow62]

there is more population to contribute to global warming in the northern hemisphere than in the southern hemisphere thus the difference in polar ice caps...just my theory

[john92021]

don't ignore the obvious, it's an election year.

[CaptRon123]

Some scientists believe that the polar icecaps will be gone within a 100 years.... On Mars. They have recorded unprecedinted warming on the red planet. I wonder if those little electric rovers are causing that? Quick, shut off your Volt.

[alphaa10000]

GRAB AN ICEBERG ?

dknelson353 said, "There is another story about the Antartic having more ice than normal....maybe you concerned global warming nuts could run down and grab an iceberg or two for Greenland!"
--------

At your mention of the Antarctic abundance of sea ice, I searched and found a contrarian blog run by Robert Felix, which sharply focuses on his own theories, but lacks the breadth and context expected of a scientific presentation. When we look for scientific sources, Felix does offer a National Center for Snow and Ice Data Center graphic showing an increase in Antarctic sea ice extent, but that is it.

Felix almost casually mentions the "Steven Goddard website", which turns out to be no scientific site, but a blog like Felix's, with one strong difference-- a site signature photo (top-of-page, full-width) of Dorothy and Toto, from "The Wizard of Oz". As Goddard's self-descriptive slogan runs, "Just having fun."

Felix is to be credited for original conjectures, such as magnetic reversals modulating volcanic episodes, rather than the reverse (official view) and clearly Felix is heavily into magnetic reversals. But I question how he is regarded by the community of geoscientists. I also wondered about his background, formal training, etc., but found he had posted nothing about himself but his series of radio interviews in far-flung outposts of contrarian thought.

In regard to the Antarctic having "more ice than normal", I did check on that, too. Yes, this year's Antarctic ice extent is above "normal" (arbitrarily assigned to Antarctic ice extent in 1979-2000 period), but barely. Yet, the Arctic ice is down, precipitously down.

Put another way, the Arctic has lost more ice (in extent of its coverage) over the sample years than the Antarctic has gained over the same interval.

Arctic and Antarctic Sea Ice Extent, 1979-2007--
http://gcmd.nasa.gov/KeywordSearch/Metadata.do?Portal=GCMD_Services&KeywordPath=[Source_Name%3A+Short_Name%3D%27DMSP%27]&OrigMetadataNode=GCMD&EntryId=NSIDC_ArcticAntarcticSeaIceExtent1979-2007&MetadataView=Full&MetadataType=0&lbnode=mdlb4

As you will see, the red median line for Antarctic ice traces a slight upward slope through the sample interval (1979-2007), and the blue median line for Arctic ice a more dramatic downward slope through the same period.

Here are some very effective, science-friendly sites which deal with contrarian ruckus very effectively.

NOAA National Climatic Data Center--
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global-snow/

All about Sea Ice--
http://nsidc.org/cryosphere/seaice/characteristics/difference.html

Skeptical Science--
http://www.skepticalscience.com/news.php?p=8&t=529&&n=39

NASA Earth Observatory-- (be sure to run the slide-show widget)
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/WorldOfChange/sea_ice_south.php

[KPeters_from_UK]

But wait, according to Sarah Palin and her friends the Arctic is fine and the proof is she has never seen a starving polar bear.

[BryanFitz]

Yet the Antarctic is recording record ice growth seems to me both sides are cherry picking their data and the truth is somewhere in the middle.