Antarctic winter sea ice hits 'extreme' record low
Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Transcript
00:00 This sea ice is the frozen ocean that floats around Antarctica.
00:04 It has a seasonal cycle freezing into the southern hemisphere's winter and melting into
00:09 summer.
00:10 It should hit its maximum extent in September.
00:13 We're still missing an area of sea ice about one and a half million square kilometres.
00:17 So this event isn't over.
00:20 Sea ice is still really, really, really low.
00:22 We can look at every other year overlaid and you can see 2023 just standing off the charts.
00:28 Sea ice is, you don't need statistics, you don't need fancy ways to look at it.
00:33 This year is unlike any other year.
00:36 Antarctica's sea ice was relatively stable until 2016.
00:40 Since then there's been a downward trend.
00:42 The yellow perimeter on this map delineates where the border of this sea ice usually is.
00:48 Scientists are untangling the reasons but the missing ice is clear in the data.
00:53 This sea ice is a pivotal part of ecosystems.
00:56 It is a habitat for penguin colonies and last year thousands of emperor penguins died as
01:01 it melted away.
01:03 Sea ice prevents land-based ice from entering the ocean which would push up sea levels.
01:09 It also reflects the sun's energy back out to space and so less sea ice means the ocean
01:14 is susceptible to further warming and greater ice loss.
01:18 A full analysis of the ice conditions will be released in October.
01:21 [BLANK_AUDIO]