Antarctic sea ice again drastically declines, a sign of permanent change

Antarctic sea ice has hovered near record lows for the second year in a row, strengthening concerns that human-induced climate change may have caused a permanent “regime shift” in the amount of ice that forms in the Southern Ocean each year.

“Last year we were talking about whether Antarctic sea ice was undergoing a regime shift. Not anymore,” says Edward Doddridge of the Australian Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies. “Antarctica has given us a pretty clear answer to that question. Now we’re talking about what the impacts are…