Sea ice extent is at record, and near record, lows for this time of year in both polar regions, leaving the planet increasingly vulnerable to the cascading effects of global warming. This March, the Arctic sea ice winter maximum reached its lowest extent in the 47-year satellite record, while the Antarctic sea ice summer minimum vied for the second lowest recorded extent in nearly five decades, according to data from the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). With less sea ice to reflect solar radiation, and more open ocean to absorb and store heat, the polar cooling system that helps protect the planet from higher temperatures will increasingly become dysfunctional. Recent climate models predict daunting scenarios of irreversible ecosystem change at Earth’s poles, with those drastic changes in polar regions rippling out to impact the rest of the world. “The Arctic and the Antarctic are really different systems, but anthropogenic global warming is the overall factor that’s leading to less ice in the north and the south,” said Walt Meier, an NSIDC senior research scientist. Arctic sea ice extent showing 2024-25 to date (in blue), as compared to the 1981-2010 median (solid grey line). The dotted line shows Arctic sea ice extent in 2011-2012, a year that saw the lowest summer sea extent on record. Image courtesy of National Snow and Ice Data Center. The graph above shows Antarctic sea ice extent on March 1, 2025, along with daily ice extent data for four previous years and…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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