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Arctic sea ice this year reached its fourth lowest level in recorded history, the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) revealed Tuesday, in what scientists and climate campaigners say is a disturbing reminder that human-made global warming continues to worsen.
“The minimum ice extent was the fourth lowest in the satellite record, and reinforces the long-term downward trend in Arctic ice extent,” the Boulder, Colorado-based NSIDC said. “The lowest extent this year, reached on September 11, was 1.7 million square miles. That’s quite low, but still 394,000 square miles above the low extent that occurred Sept. 17, 2012, when ice only covered 1.31 million square miles at the top of the world.”
However, the NSIDC noted an overall disturbing trend: “The nine lowest extents in the satellite era have all occurred in the last nine years.”
Further, in a discussion of the findings, NASA noted on Tuesday: “The sea ice decline has accelerated since 1996. The 10 lowest minimum extents in the satellite record have occurred in the last 11 years.”
Julienne Seroide, a senior scientist at NSIDC, told Common Dreams that “the long-term trends towards less ice in the Arctic is definitely linked to increases in greenhouse gases and a warming arctic. That is pretty well known now.”
Seroide emphasized that , while the 2015 findings in isolation are not evidence of global warming, the long-term trend they are part of constitutes proof: “When we talk about climate change, we are talking about the long-term trend.”