NASA video shows rapid decay of Arctic ice

A time-lapse video released by NASA shows the rapid shrinking of the Arctic ice shelves over three decades, highlighting the catastrophic changes global warming is having on our environment.

“What we’ve seen over the years is that the older ice is disappearing,” Walt Meier, sea ice researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said in the October 29 video.

“This older, thicker ice is like the bulwark of sea ice: a warm summer will melt all the young, thin ice away but it can’t completely get rid of the older ice. But this older ice is becoming weaker because there’s less of it and the remaining old ice is more broken up and thinner, so that bulwark is not as good as it used to be.”

In 1984 there was almost 2 million sq km of “old ice” in the Arctic region, however by September 2016 there was only 110,0000 sq km left.

“We’ve lost most of the older ice. In the 1980s, multi-year ice made up 20 percent of the sea ice cover. Now it’s only about three percent,” Meier said.

“The older ice was like the insurance policy of the Arctic sea ice pack: as we lose it, the likelihood for a largely ice-free summer in the Arctic increases.”

In 1984, there was 1.8 million sq km of ice that was at least five years old at its lowest annual amount. By September 2016, there was a mere 110,000 sq km left.