Posted on 28 September 2023
Scientists predict that Antarctica's record has been broken for the lowest annual maximum amount of sea ice around the continent.
This was announced by the UN Weather Agency on Tuesday, the preliminary data showing that ice levels are this year less than 17 million square km, which is the lowest since satellite records began in 1979.
Dr Petra Heil, expert from the Australia Antarctic Division and part of WMO’s Global Cryosphere Watch, speaks to the far reaching effects of these environmental changes. "The 2023 Antarctic sea-ice deficit has direct impacts on the climate- and ecosystems, both nearby as well as far field, including at lower latitudes, which are home to the majority of human population and their economic interests,” she says.
"What happens in Antarctica and the Arctic affects the entire globe” says Chief of Climate Monitoring at WMO, Omar Baddour.