Review of Different Types Ice and Ramifications of its Loss (Video)

Here is a relevant primer on ice. This information is timely in the wake of the summer 2012 loss of a quarter million square miles of Arctic ice. This video reviews in very simple terms the different types of ice and the ramifications of the scientific observation that they are melting.

First Hand Account of Melting Arctic Sea Ice (Video)

Join Al Jazeera's Nick Clark as he joined an expedition traveling deep into the Arctic Circle earlier this summer. This is a first hand account of the rapidly melting Arctic ice cap.

Unprecedented Arctic Ice Melt in 2012 (Video)

In 2012 the Arctic ice cap shrunk more than ever before in recorded history. As of September, 2012, only slightly more than 20 percent of the Arctic Ocean was covered by ice. In this video Ray Suarez talks to Walt Meier, a scientist at the U.S. National Ice and Snow Data Center about the new evidence and how a lack of arctic sea ice affects ocean currents and changes weather patterns.

Its Official Arctic Sea Ice is at its Lowest Level in Recorded History

Researchers at the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center, said that Arctic sea ice is at its lowest level ever recorded. What happens to the Arctic sea ice is of great relevance to everyone everywhere on the planet. Sea ice is a key indicator of climate change, as part of complex feedback loops, ice loss is expected to exacerbate our warming climate.

Northern Ice is Melting at a Dramatic Rate

The combination of declining Arctic ice and Greenland's melting ice sheet are part of a troubling trend that cannot be ignored. As of June 2012, Arctic sea ice declined by 1.10 million square miles and as of July a total of 97 percent of Greenland's ice sheet had melted.

According to satellite images from NASA (see above left), Greenland's ice sheet is melting at an alarming rate. Before July 2012, the most extensive melting seen by satellites in the past three decades was about 55 percent. Ice core records reveal that we have not seen such pronounced melting of Greenland's ice sheet since 1889. To make matters worse a 70 square miles (181 square km) iceberg broke off Greenland’s Petermann Glacier.