September 09, 2019

NASA Time-Lapse Shows 35 Year Decline of Arctic Sea Ice

 arctic ice sea level

 

 Over the past few decades it has become more and more apparent that the Arctic sea ice has been declining. The ice is melting much faster than it re-freezes in the winter. With global warming, our Earth's poles are warming faster than lower latitudes.  The main cause of this is when ice melts it uncovers darker land or ocean beneath which absorbs more sunlight; in turn, this causes more heating. To many, this problem is not a relevant one because they aren't directly witnessing it happening.  In fact, it's almost impossible to see the effects because the melting happens gradually over time.  NASA, however, released a visualization that helps people to see the decline of the Arctic sea ice first-hand.  The shocking results are that the perennial ice in the Arctic Circle has shrunk by more than 95 per cent in only 35 years. When you watch the time-lapse visualization of the 35 year decline it really puts things into perspective.  Watch the video below to see the decline.

In the 1st week of January 1988, over 1.2 million sq. miles were covered by sea ice 4 years of age or older, compared with just over 44,000 sq. miles in the same week in 2019.