With rising global temperatures transforming the landscape of the Arctic, scientists are watching what’s developing a new record at the other end of the world.
Preliminary data from the National Snow and Ice Data Centre indicate that Antarctica is likely to set a record for least amount of sea ice for this year.
Sea ice around the continent fell below the previous record low of March 2017 on Wednesday.
“What’s going on in the Antarctic is an extreme event,” Ted Scambos, a glaciologist at the University of Colorado Boulder.
What he means by that is a roller coaster ride of sea ice expansion from recent decades, which has ranged wildly from record highs to record lows.
He says it’s an example of how the effects of climate change in some particular place could have an impact on the effects of the planet.
