Arctic sea ice has likely hit its 2007 minimum

Although they caution that sea ice has tricked them before, the National Sea Ice Data Center report today that the 2007 Arctic sea ice minimum was hit on September 16, and the ice is now growing.

This year's minimum was approximately one million square miles smaller than the average minimum between 1979 and 2000. To put that in perspective, the average summer minimum has been 2.6 million square miles. This year it was 1.5 million square miles. Scared yet?

That's three Texas's and two Californias' worth of bright white reflective surface, transformed into dark absorbent mass. By us.

If we used tags at DL, this one would go under "Apocalyptic signs of imminent runaway global warming." And if we were a non-profit environmental group, we would now urge you to (a) give us money (get a free tote bag!) and (b) change your light bulbs.

--Zadig