Summer ice in the Arctic Ocean continues to rebound from the abnormally low 2007 season, when a shift in regional wind patterns sent much of the sea ice south into the North Atlantic Ocean.
As this year’s summer ice approached its annual September minimum, satellite photographs revealed more ice in 2009 than in 2008, which in turn retained more ice than 2007.
After the 2007 summer ice season, alarmists proclaimed the beginning of the end for Arctic sea ice and predicted an ice-free North Pole in 2008 or 2009. But summer ice coverage in 2008 and 2009 have confirmed the low sea ice coverage in 2007 was an abnormality, rather than the first act in a new summer ice-melt regime.
In 2007, Arctic sea ice covered approximately 4.5 million square kilometers at its summer minimum. In 2008, the ice covered nearly 5 million square kilometers at its summer minimum. This summer, Arctic sea covered approximately 1 million square kilometers more than 2007 sea ice as the season approached its September sea ice minimum.
James M. Taylor ([email protected]) is a senior fellow of The Heartland Institute and managing editor of Environment & Climate News.
