“By itself it's just a number, and occasionally records are going to get set. But in the context of what's happened in the last several years and throughout the satellite record, it's an indication that the Arctic sea ice cover is fundamentally changing," NSIDC scientist Walt Meier said in a press release.
“The Arctic used to be dominated by multiyear ice, or ice that stayed around for several years," Meier continued. “Now it's becoming more of a seasonal ice cover and large areas are now prone to melting out in summer."
In related news, the American Meterological Society released its official statement on climate change, something that it does once every five years. The AMS has been a bit slower to jump to the conclusion that human-caused climate change is happening than their colleagues in climatology. For example, in their 2007 statement, they noted that there was ‘adequate' evidence to suggest that humans are a ‘significant' cause of climate change. Read the full report here.
Source: Alex Knapp, Forbes Staff, Forbes.
