ANTARCTICA’S summer extent of sea ice is set for a record low, environmental group Greenpeace warned yesterday.
Data from the US’s National Snow and Ice Data Centre shows that this year the southern continent’s sea ice will reach the lowest extent on satellite record, it said.
Early measurements show the sea ice around the continent has passed the previous record minimum set in March 2017, of 2.1 million square kilometres, having dropped to 1.98 million square kilometres on Sunday.
Greenpeace spokeswoman Laura Meller said it was “terrifying to witness this frozen ocean melting down.
“In 2020 we witnessed the Arctic reaching its second-lowest sea ice extent on record; now we need a global network of ocean sanctuaries amid disruption from pole to pole.
“Every human being on Earth depends on healthy oceans to survive; this is a clear warning that we need to protect them for good,” she said.
The Antarctic ice sheet is losing mass three times faster now than in the 1990s and contributing to global sea level rise, Greenpeace said.
The group is calling for the UN to agree a global ocean treaty that could allow for the creation of a network of ocean sanctuaries free from harmful human activity, across international waters.
Published at morningstaronline.co.uk/
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