Global Warming

Reuters:

Winter Arctic sea ice this year was the second smallest area on record in a sign of greenhouse warming, U.S. climate scientists said on Wednesday.

Sea ice extent, or the area of ocean that is covered by at least 15 percent ice, was 5.7 million square miles in March, the Colorado-based National Sea and Ice Data Center said on Wednesday. March usually marks the end of winter in the Arctic, a period when sea ice recovers from the summertime minimum.

This March's ice level represented a slight recovery from the record low during the same month last year when the ice extent was 5.6 million square miles. But low sea ice levels this winter -- the world's warmest on record, according to the U.S. government -- are part of a trend toward less ice.