The Arctic ice sheet reaches its all-time low and confirms the worst forecasts. Since the ice sheet began to be measured by satellite in 1972, levels have never been so low. The figures are similar to those obtained in 2007, a year that until now marked the minimum, which is clear that we are immersed in a new stage marked by a much smaller presence of ice in summer than was normal until now.
Scientists from the University of Bremen, based on a NASA satellite, estimate the layer that covered the Arctic on September 8 at 4.24 million square meters of ice. Four years ago, in the middle of the same month, the lowest figures had been registered with 4.27 million square kilometers. But the worrying thing is that this minimum can still be reduced even more because there is at least one more week of intense sun and the thaw in northern latitudes has not yet ended.
For Dr Georg Heygster of the University of Bremen, it is clearly "one more consequence of man-made global warming ." These possible record figures were already anticipated last August, when two new shipping routes were opened in the Arctic. Figures that are now confirmed and possibly even get worse.
