Climate Change Update: Satellite images show that the rapid summer melt has reduced the area of Arctic sea ice to less than 3.5 million square kilometres this week. Sea ice in the Arctic has shrunk to its smallest extent ever recorded, smashing the previous record minimum and prompting warnings of accelerated climate change.

"Satellite images show that the rapid summer melt has reduced the area of frozen sea to less than 3.5 million square kilometres this week – less than half the area typically occupied four decades ago. Arctic sea ice cover has been shrinking since the 1970s when it averaged around 8m sq km a year, but such a dramatic collapse in ice cover in one year is highly unusual. A record low in 2007 of 4.17m sq km was broken on 27 August 2012; further melting has since amounted to more than 500,000 sq km."

'via Blog this'Arctic sea ice shrinks to smallest extent ever recorded | Environment | guardian.co.uk: