Professor Jason Box was good enough to add some expert commentary to our recent story about a large calving of the Jakobshavn Glacier last month. Consequently we have just watched his presentation to the 2015 Economist Arctic Summit at the Hotel Bristol in Oslo with much interest. Here are our edited highlights from the conference’s Twitter feed:
@climate_ice speaking at #EconArctic – The #Arctic is warming 3 times as fast as the #Tropics, and twice as fast as #MidLatitudes
— Jim Hunt (@jim_hunt) March 12, 2015
@climate_ice at #EconArctic – “#Arctic #SeaIce is retreating at twice the rate of the best model projections”
— Jim Hunt (@jim_hunt) March 12, 2015
@climate_ice at #EconArctic – “We should be cautious about using [climate] model projections as policy tools”
— Jim Hunt (@jim_hunt) March 12, 2015
@ahaveland @EconomistEvents Is #EconArctic aware a whole range of #SeaIce metrics are currently at record low levels? http://t.co/Dug4fKxTbH
— Snow White (@GreatWhiteCon) March 12, 2015
Here are some relevant Arctic sea ice metrics. We will continue to update them as the latest figures arrive throughout the rest of today:
IJIS/JAXA daily extent: 13,648,280 km² – Lowest ever level for the date in records going back to 2003
DMI “30%” daily extent: 10,676,900 km² – Lowest ever level for the date in records going back to 2005
NSIDC daily extent: 14,330,000 km² – Lowest ever level for the date
NSIDC 5 day average extent: 14,280,000 km² – Lowest ever level for the date in records going back to 1979
Cryosphere Today daily area: 12,984,410 km² – Lowest ever level for the date in records going back to 1979
