Arctic death spiral: Icebreakers reach North Pole as sea ice disintegrates

Arctic sea ice continued its long-term death spiral in 2016, thanks to warming-driven ice melt. As the ice sheet shrinks and thins, it’s becoming easier and easier for icebreakers to reach the North Pole.

The Arctic has been setting records for warmth and sea ice loss and Greenland ice sheet melt, as we’ve been reporting all year long. Last week, 46,000 square miles of sea ice (almost the size of England) disintegrated in one day, which is triple the normal rate.

The result is that the Arctic sea ice minimum has hit the second lowest level on record, as this chart from Tamino shows:...
https://thinkprogress.org/arctic-sea-ice-death-spiral-b928be2fde0a#.4v5a07dmz