WASHINGTON—Arctic sea ice this summer shrank to its second lowest level since scientists started to monitor it by satellite, with scientists saying it is another ominous signal of global warming. The U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado said the sea ice reached its summer low point on Saturday, extending 4.14 million square kilometres. That’s behind only the mark set in 2012, 13.39 million square kilometres. Centre director Mark Serreze said this year’s level technically was 10,000 square kilometres less than 2007, but that’s so close the two years are essentially tied. What we’ve seen this year is reinforcing that.”This year’s minimum level is 2.56 million square kilometres smaller than the 1979 to 2000 average.

Source: thestar September 15, 2016 20:26 UTC