The ice around the North Pole is going away, and it’s doing so with alarming rapidity. We are not talking about the yearly cycle of melt in the summer and freeze in the winter, but the long-term trend of declining amounts of ice. The area of the ocean covered by ice, as well as volume, and the thickness of the ice is going down. Fast.
NASA: Polar sea ice
The 10 lowest maxima for extent in the satellite record all occurred in the last 10 years.
Global sea ice at lowest area ever recorded (Jan 2017)
NASA: Annual Arctic Sea Ice Minimum 1979-2015 with Area Graph
Interactive updated sea ice graph 2016
Read More:
- Arctic Now ‘Locked In’ for Serious Warming, UN Report Warns (2019)
- Scientists Observe Low Sea Ice in Bering Sea off Alaska (2019)
- Arctic Sea Ice Summer Minimum in 2018 Is Sixth Lowest on Record (Sep 2018)
- In the Arctic, the Old Ice Is Disappearing (NYT, May 2018)
- Crump, J. (2018) Snowballs in Rome and China’s Arctic Policy
- Arctic Heat Surges Again, and Studies Are Finding Climate Change Connections (May 2018)
- ‘Crazy, Crazy Stuff’: Arctic Winter Warmest on Record. The Arctic just experienced its warmest winter on record, scientists say. In the dead of winter, temperatures at the North Pole approached the melting point, (March 2018)
- ‘Off the Charts’: New Study Shows Greenland Ice Sheet Likely Hasn’t Melted This Fast for More Than 7,000 Years (2018)
- NSIDC Arctic sea ice. A warm approach to the equinox (March 2018)
- Global sea ice records broken (again) (Jan 2017)
- West Antarctic is cracking up (Jan 2017)
- Temperatures Skyrocket in Arctic, Prompt Desperate ‘Refreeze’ Plan (Feb 2017)
- Arctic sea ice shrinks to second lowest level ever recorded. May trigger uncontrollable climate changes globally (Nov 2016)
- Arctic sea ice volume 1979-2012
- Arctic sea ice extent 2012/13
- Arctic sea ice news and analysis (NSIDC)
- NOAA Arctic report
- NASA Polar sea ice report
- NASA: Polar land ice report
- NASA: Older, thicker ice is disappearing. As more sea ice melts each summer, the ice that reforms in winter is new, thinner ice.
- NASA land ice report
- How Disappearing Arctic Ice Could Lead to Global Climate Catastrophe (Oct 2016)
- Greenland Ice Sheet Melting 7% Faster Than Previously Thought (Sept 2016)
- NASA: An unrecognizable Arctic
- Arctic sea ice is getting thinner faster than expected (March 2015)
- NASA: 2015 Arctic sea ice maximum is lowest recorded (March 2015)
- Arctic Ice Shrinks to Summer Low (Sept 2016)
- Arctic sea ice melts at alarming rate
- Arctic summers could be nearly ice-free in seven years
- New Satellite Data Reveals Dramatic Shrinkage of Arctic Ice Cap (Feb 2015)
- Ice Sheet Disintegration (Columbia edu)
- Arctic Sea Ice Hits Yet Another Record Low (March 2016)
- Arctic Sea Ice Breaks May Record . . . By A Lot (June 2016)
- Gauging Greenland’s Melt
- Scientists in Greenland Weigh Sea-Level Rise Impacts of Two Processes
- Greenland lost a staggering 1 trillion tons of ice in just four years (july 2016)
- Scientists struggle to keep up with melting Arctic (Sept 2016)
- Rekonstruerer fortidens temperaturer med algefett (CICERO, Nov 2016)
- Siberian air Will Blow to U.S. as Polar Vortex Breaks Down & Jet Stream Crosses North Pole (Dec 2016)
- Arctic Sea Ice Sees Strange Cold Season Retreat (Dec 2016)
- Drastic cooling in North Atlantic beyond worst fears, scientists warn (Feb 2017)
- Arctic Sea Ice Sets Record-Low Peak for Third Year (March 2017)
- Tanker Crosses Arctic Without Icebreaker for First Time Due to Rapid Melting of Sea Ice (Aug 2017)
- Welcome to the ‘New Arctic’: The Region ‘As We Once Knew It Is No More’ (Dec 2017)
Antarctic
- Antarctica is headed for a climate tipping point by 2060, with catastrophic melting if carbon emissions aren’t cut quickly (2021)
- From Antarctica to the Oceans, Climate Change Damage Is About to Get a Lot Worse, IPCC Warns (2019)
- What’s Causing Antarctica’s Ocean to Heat Up? New Study Points to 2 Human Sources (Sep 2018)
- Four decades of Antarctic Ice Sheet mass balance from 1979–2017
- Global sea ice at lowest area ever recorded (Jan 2017)
- Are You Ready for the Biggest Environmental Catastrophe of Our Lifetime? West Antarctica melting (April 2015)
- Glacial melting inn Antarctica Makes Continent The ‘Ground Zero Of Global Climate Change’ (Feb 2015)
- Melting of Antarctic Ice Sheets Is Making Southern Ocean Less Salty (Sept 2016)
- NASA Land Ice report
- Brenda Ekwurzel: “Unstoppable” Destabilization of West Antarctic Ice Sheet: Threshold May Have Been Crossed (UCS, Nov 2016)
- Antarctica’s Ice Shelves Melting Rapidly as Ocean Waters Warm (Nov 2016)
- Rift in Pine Island Glacier points to a coming, broader collapse (Nov 2016)
- Alaska indigenous people see culture slipping away as sea ice vanishes (Dec 2016)
- Stunning Photos Show Huge Crack in Antarctic Ice Shelf (Dec 2016)
- Carbon pollution is destabilizing both the Arctic and Antarctic. (Feb 2017)
- Why Is Antarctica’s Sea Ice Growing While the Arctic Melts? Scientists Have an Answer (Feb 2017)
- Massive Iceberg Finally Breaks Off: Antarctic Landscape ‘Changed Forever’ (July 2017)
A Greener Future 