Antarctic ice coverage hits record low

The sea ice coverage in Antarctica's summer reached a record low on February 8, with satellite data recording an area of only 2.2 million square kilometres of ice covering the Southern Ocean, according to Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) on Friday.

This is the lowest amount of ice coverage since recording began in 1979, and the summer melt period is still expected to continue through the end of the month.

The previous record was coverage of 2.27 million square kilometres measured just the year before, on February 24, 2022.

Over the course of the year, sea ice coverage in Antarctica peaks in September or October and reaches a low point in February.

At the peak, it generally covers up to 20 million square kilometres, according to the AWI, melting to around 3 million square kilometres in summer.

In the last six years, the east and west of the Antarctic Peninsula have seen increasingly warm air temperatures.

It's unclear whether the ice coverage will remain stable.

Marine biologist Franziska Saalmann of the environmental organization Greenpeace said, the new record low shows "the climate crisis continues to escalate." 

This affects us all, she said, and it is a disgrace that new fossil fuel ventures continue to be planned.