Arctic ice has been trending lower and lower basically since they started tracking it in 1979.
Antarctic ice, on the other hand, didn’t have any such trend until recently. The previous record low and record high were both in the last decade. But the last few years have all been on the low end and setting new records and then this year is an unprecedented low in Antarctica, as that other graph shows.
Now it could be an outlier rather than a new trend. The Arctic had one of those in 2012 and we still haven’t broken that record low. So there is a bit of “wait and see” to this. Only if it is the bad case, we can’t wait to see before we act, and if it is the good case, it doesn’t mean no action is needed. We should be making big changes to our way of life at a societal level.
Arctic ice has been trending lower and lower basically since they started tracking it in 1979.
Antarctic ice, on the other hand, didn’t have any such trend until recently. The previous record low and record high were both in the last decade. But the last few years have all been on the low end and setting new records and then this year is an unprecedented low in Antarctica, as that other graph shows.
Now it could be an outlier rather than a new trend. The Arctic had one of those in 2012 and we still haven’t broken that record low. So there is a bit of “wait and see” to this. Only if it is the bad case, we can’t wait to see before we act, and if it is the good case, it doesn’t mean no action is needed. We should be making big changes to our way of life at a societal level.