The melting of the Arctic ice cap
By Jonathan Leake, Times Online, December 27, 2008
The Arctic ice cap has been shrinking for the last three decades but recently that shrinkage has accelerated sharply. In 2007 the area covered by summer ice shrank to its smallest extent ever. The extent of sea ice cover in September 2008 was the second lowest ever recorded.
The latest Met Office Hadley Centre results strengthen the evidence that human activity is a significant factor in the shrinkage of the Arctic summer ice cap and suggests that this will lead to ice-free summers later this century.
You may have seen recent headlines that Arctic summer sea ice has decreased so much in the last few years that it has reached a tipping point and will disappear very quickly.
This is possible but the researchers also stress the need for caution in interpreting such trends because the climate shows a lot of natural variability besides that caused by climate change. So it is still possible, although unlikely, that the dramatic losses of the last two years might be reversed.
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