The world just broke “another terrifying climate record”. CNN reports:

Antarctic sea ice has declined to unprecedented lows for this time of year.Antarctic sea ice shrinks to its limit every year lowest level During the continental summer, around the end of February. Sea ice then increases again during the winter.

But this year, scientists observed something different.

Sea ice has not returned anywhere near the expected levels. In fact, it was the lowest level for this period since records began 45 years ago.ice is around 1.6 million square kilometers That’s below the previous winter record low set in 2022 (600,000 square miles), according to data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). In mid-July, Antarctic sea ice 2.6 million square kilometers (million square miles) below the 1981-2010 average. This is roughly the size of Argentina, Texas, California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Colorado combined.

This phenomenon has been described by some scientists as an anomalous phenomenon. This is extremely rare and only happens once every few million years. But glaciologist Ted Scambos of the University of Colorado Boulder said speaking in such terms may not be very helpful. “Things have changed,” he told CNN. “It makes no sense to talk about the probability that the system will be the way it used to be. It is clear that the system has changed…”

This winter’s unprecedented event could indicate long-term changes in the isolated continent, Skambos said. “It’s likely that we won’t see the Antarctic system recover for, say, 15 years ago for very long, and perhaps ‘forever.'” Others are more cautious. “We know that Antarctic sea ice shows significant year-to-year variability, even though it’s far from the average,” Julian Strobe, senior scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, told CNN. , adding, “It is too early to say whether this is correct.” Whether the new normal. ”
Glaciologists have described the change as “so extreme that the past two years, especially this year, have seen something fundamentally different from all years going back at least 45 years.” And CNN added that in the Arctic, meanwhile, “sea ice continues to decline as the climate crisis accelerates.”

Other potential impacts of reduced sea ice:

• According to CNN, sea ice reflects sunlight back into space, so when it melts, it “exposes dark areas.” ocean water It absorbs the sun’s energy under it. ”

• Since sea ice floats on the surface of the water, the loss of sea ice will not directly affect sea level rise, CNN said. But it is clear that the disappearance of sea ice has left coastal ice sheets and glaciers “more susceptible to melting and breaking up due to exposure to waves and warm waters.”

  In February NASA reported global sea levels.increasing as a result of anthropogenic global warmingAlthough seawater expands as it warms, NASA also attributes the increase in water from melting ice sheets and glaciers, resulting in a 3.89-inch increase since 1993 and a 7.97-inch increase since 2000. mm) since 1900.