In yet another sign of climate change’s decimating effects on
Arctic sea ice, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) just kicked off a program to update some
of its nautical charts. As Climate Central reports, routes
through the Arctic Ocean have great economic value. They can
serve as a shortcut between Europe and Asia, which can save
shipping companies many thousands of miles of travel and thus
considerable costs. But these passages have generally been
blocked by ice, making extensive mapping of the sea floor to
guide ships unnecessary. Now that situation is changing. In
2012, the “minimum extent” for Arctic sea ice — the low point in
the cyclical shifts the ice coverage goes through annually —
reached a measure lower than any that’s been recorded since
scientists began collecting satellite data in the late 1970s. At
3.41 million square kilometers, 2012′s minimum beat out the
previous record, set in 2007, of 4.17 million square kilometers.
For reference, that drop of roughly 800,000 squa