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Another extreme low for Antarctic sea ice signals a permanent shift

An area of missing Antarctic sea ice twice the size of Texas adds to concerns that the ice has seen a lasting 鈥渞egime shift鈥, with consequences for ecosystems and global ocean circulation

By James Dinneen

12 September 2024

Sea ice in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica

Sergio Pitamitz/VWPics/Alamy

For the second year in a row, Antarctic sea ice has reached near-record low levels. This reinforces concerns that human-caused climate change has initiated a lasting 鈥渞egime shift鈥 in the amount of ice that forms in the Southern Ocean each year.

鈥淟ast year we were talking about whether Antarctic sea ice is undergoing a regime shift. Not anymore,鈥 says at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies in Australia. 鈥淎ntarctica has pretty definitively answered that question for us. Now we are talking about what the impacts of that…

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