Arctic sea ice hits record monthly low for 7th time in 2016

That assumption leaves the authors of Conservation status of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) in relation to projected sea-ice declines searching for a projection of population size, leaving the polar bear as vulnerable according to the IUCN.

The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) has officially confirmed that the Arctic and Antarctic sea have reached the lowest level in sea ice.

November is the seventh month in 2016 to hit a record low Arctic sea ice extent, a result of warm water, unfavorable winds, and an atmosphere that’s as much as 36 degrees warmer than usual. Similarly, sea ice in the Arctic, though expanding for the winter, hit a record low of 3.96 million square miles this season, below 2006’s record. In the crucial Barents Sea, floating ice decreased when it would be expected to grow.

In 2013 the Arctic had a smaller ice retreat, which covered around 14,000 square kilometers.

Antarctica, which has so far appeared more resilient to the effects of rising temperatures than the Arctic, also started to rapidly decline in November, and it too set a record low for the month.

NSIDC lead scientist Ted Scambos said, “Antarctic sea ice really went down the rabbit hole this time”.

Polar bears depend on sea ice for much of their livelihoods.

In the Arctic, the explanation is simpler – temperatures have just been extremely warm, so the ice hasn’t been able to refreeze, heading into winter, in the way that it normally would.

Donald Trump, who has previously called man-made climate change a hoax, has threatened to pull out of that agreement. The observed rate of ice loss per metric ton of Carbon dioxide allows individuals to more easily grasp their contribution to Arctic sea ice loss.

The Arctic’s record low, beating a mark set in 2012, was driven by unusually high temperatures over the Arctic Ocean, persistent winds that pushed ice north and a warm ocean.

The scientists said that the warm ocean temperatures, the warming atmosphere and wind patterns like El Niño are preventing ice from forming. Scientists anxious about reaching such a point-of-no-return when sea ice first plummeted to a record low in 2007, but it has since rebounded (though the long-term decline continues) and if warming is brought under control, sea ice can grow back. Especially when temperatures in parts of the Arctic rose 20 degrees Celsius (36°F) above normal in November, and 2016 has been declared the hottest year on record.

We know that sea ice in the Antarctic has increased slightly over the past 30 years since satellite observations began.

The culprit is global warming, which has raised the region’s surface temperatures by more than two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) compared to the pre-industrial era level, twice the global average. This parameter, by some measures, gives a more accurate picture of the state of sea ice, since it gives an inidcation of its durability.