Tag Archives: arctic sea ice melt

The front line of climate change and the politics of a warming Arctic – It was just a little over 100 years ago that Robert Peary’s expedition first reached the north pole – or at least very close. In 1991 eight “arctic nations” signed the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy (AEPS), including Canada, the United States, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Russia (at the time …

Scientists have long modeled the expected warming due to the decreased albedo effect as melting Arctic sea ice exposes more open ocean. As early as the 1960’s climate researchers have predicted how this phenomenon will amplify global warming. Arctic ice melt, albedo and global warming Albedo is measured as a percentage, in this case the percentage of solar radiation a surface reflects back into …

Arctic sea ice extent (or area covered) reached its seasonal low this year on September 14th, hitting its second lowest level since satellite data collection began thirty years ago, not quite reaching the record low of last year. The near-record low “strongly reinforces” the 30–year downward trend for Arctic sea ice extent, a full 34% below the long-term average from 1979 to 2000, and only …