The Arctic sea ice falls to an all-time low for winter season while Antarctica melts to its lowest summertime record. Scientists say that global warming is to blame. Thus, humans should really move away from burning coal, oil, and gas.
On March 7, the North Pole seems to have reached another wintertime low, according to NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and its National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Now, all the way down to the South Pole, Antarctica suffers the same problem with the lowest recorded ice during summer last March 3. Meanwhile, on Feb 13, the combined Arctic and Antarctic sea ice are at its most insufficient amount since 1979.
NASA further illustrated that the total polar ice of the Earth covers 6.26 million square miles (sq mi). Still, this is 790,000 sq mi less than the average global minimum extent in 1981 to 2010. Simply put, the planet has lost ice the size of Mexico, or even larger.
The March 7 event listed a 5.57 million sq mi ice measurement, which is 37,000 sq mi lower than the previous record low. On the other hand, the March 3 data provided a significant drop of 71,000 sq mi below the previous lowest minimum extent. Antarctica only offered a total of 815,000 sq mi of ice this year, per NSIDC.
Both the Arctic and Antarctic ice behaviors follow the same pattern. The former experiences ice shrinking between mid-March to mid-September and comes back during winter. For the south, the ice is at its peak every September and its minimum every February. However, the rising temperatures of the Earth prevented the ice from recovering.
"Nature is sending us yet another distress call," Lou Leonard of the World Wildlife Fund told USA Today. Leonard added that it is now time to acknowledge man-caused climate change. For her part, Goddard researcher Claire Parkinson noted in earlier media interviews that "last year was stunningly different" for Antarctica. "To think that now the Antarctic ice extent is actually reaching a record minimum, that's definitely of interest," she ended.
