Arctic Sea Ice Level Reaches Historic Low

August 17, 2007 3:34 p.m. EST
Linda Young - AHN News Writer

Washington, DC (AHN) - In another grim sign of the reality of global warming, Arctic sea ice reached an historic low on Friday. Scientists announced that there was less ice on the Arctic Sea than had ever before been recorded.

"Today is a historic day," Mark Serreze, a senior research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. "This is the least sea ice we've ever seen in the satellite record and we have another month left to go in the melt season this year."
According to satellite measurements, Arctic ice has fallen to 2.02 million square miles of ice, down from the previous record low of 2.05 million square miles on Sept. 21, 2005, the agency said.

Japanese experts say that new measurements mean that earlier predictions of a summer with no sea ice could occur 40 years sooner than forecasters originally feared.

Scientists had originally said that there would be no Arctic Sea ice during the summer of 2070, but on Friday said that with the new accelerated rates of ice melt that the year 2030 could bring the first summer ever without ice on the Arctic Sea.