A New Low For Arctic Ice

This summer, the Arctic ice cap shrank—melted-- to an all-time tiny size. Half what it was in 1980.  The planet is changing. We explore.

David Robinson, climatologist and professor in the department of geography at Rutgers University.

Walt Meier, research scientist at the National Snow & Ice Data Center, which has been measuring the Arctic sea ice cover since 1979.

New York Times "The apparent low point for 2012 was reached Sunday, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, which said that sea ice that day covered about 1.32 million square miles, or 24 percent, of the surface of the Arctic Ocean. The previous low, set in 2007, was 29 percent."

Scientific American  "That difference between the previous record and this year’s is larger than the entire state of California, and almost as large as the state of Texas.  An ice-free summer in the Arctic, once projected to be more than a century away, now looks possible decades from now. Some say that it looks likely in just the next few years."

Greenpeace’s Arctic Sunrise ship uploads a new image every minute. Here it’s at anchor in Longyearbyen, Norway.

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