Arctic Ice Second-Lowest Ever; Polar Bears Affected
Posted on August 28, 2008
Arctic sea ice shrank to its second-lowest level ever, U.S. scientists said, with particular melting in the Chukchi Sea, where polar bears were recently seen swimming far off the Alaskan coast.
This year’s Arctic ice melt could surpass the extraordinary 2007 record low in the coming weeks. Last year’s minimum ice level was reached on September 16, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
Even if no records are broken this year, the downward trend in summer sea ice in the Arctic continues, the Colorado-based center said. Last year’s record was blamed squarely on human-spurred climate change.
“No matter where we stand at the end of the melt season it’s just reinforcing this notion that Arctic ice is in its death spiral,” said Mark Serreze, a scientist at the center. The Arctic could be free of summer ice by 2030, Serreze said by telephone.
This year’s data “primarily reflects melt in the Chukchi Sea off the Alaskan coast and the East Siberian Seas off the coast of eastern Russia,” the center said.
The Chukchi Sea is home to one of the world’s largest polar bear populations and also includes a vast area where the United States sold oil and gas rights worth $2.66 billion last year.
On Tuesday, Arctic sea ice stretched over 2.03 million square miles, which is less than the 2005 mark of 2.05 million square miles, set on September 21 of that year, the center’s analysis found.
» Filed Under Climate, environment
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