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23-07-2023, 10:46 AM
PUBLISHED TUE, JUL 11 20235:25 PM EDT UPDATED WED, JUL 12 202311:14 AM EDT
Catherine Clifford
......
On February 21, sea ice in the Antarctic set a record low for the second year in a row, going back to 1979, which is as far back as the records go at the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
Ever since then, the amount of sea ice continues to track at record low levels.
......
“We’ve had three record low summers in the last few years (2016/17, 2022 and 2023), plus the current winter growth season is unlike anything we’ve seen in our 45 years of continuous satellite observations,” Will Hobbs, a physical oceanographer and sea ice project co-lead for the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership, told CNBC. “That’s a very sudden shift, since up to 2015 the Antarctic is cover was increasing, not decreasing like the Arctic.”
Because the downturn in Antarctic sea ice is new, it’s too soon to know exactly why this is happening, according to scientists who study the flows of sea ice at the poles.
“As for the question ‘is this climate change?’, the science community probably isn’t ready to state that yet,” Hobbs told CNBC. It’s “the million dollar question,” Hobbs said, and answering it “will keep us busy for a few years yet.”
That being said, it’s not good news.
“What we can say for certain is that this kind of collapse was predicted, albeit not for a few decades, so the best case scenario is that we’re getting a glimpse of Antarctica’s future,” Hobbs told CNBC. ’The worst case is that the ice doesn’t recover, and the future came a few decades earlier than we hoped and expected.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/11/antarcti...onths.html
Catherine Clifford
......
On February 21, sea ice in the Antarctic set a record low for the second year in a row, going back to 1979, which is as far back as the records go at the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
Ever since then, the amount of sea ice continues to track at record low levels.
......
“We’ve had three record low summers in the last few years (2016/17, 2022 and 2023), plus the current winter growth season is unlike anything we’ve seen in our 45 years of continuous satellite observations,” Will Hobbs, a physical oceanographer and sea ice project co-lead for the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership, told CNBC. “That’s a very sudden shift, since up to 2015 the Antarctic is cover was increasing, not decreasing like the Arctic.”
Because the downturn in Antarctic sea ice is new, it’s too soon to know exactly why this is happening, according to scientists who study the flows of sea ice at the poles.
“As for the question ‘is this climate change?’, the science community probably isn’t ready to state that yet,” Hobbs told CNBC. It’s “the million dollar question,” Hobbs said, and answering it “will keep us busy for a few years yet.”
That being said, it’s not good news.
“What we can say for certain is that this kind of collapse was predicted, albeit not for a few decades, so the best case scenario is that we’re getting a glimpse of Antarctica’s future,” Hobbs told CNBC. ’The worst case is that the ice doesn’t recover, and the future came a few decades earlier than we hoped and expected.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/11/antarcti...onths.html
