Arctic Ice at Lowest Level in, Like, 8,000 Years

Sure, there hasn't been this little ice at the north pole since the last ice age, but think of the business opportunities!

We did it! Arctic sea ice coverage is the smallest it's been since at least 1972, and in all likelihood, the past 8,000 years! NASA's Aqua satellite shows that ice now covers 4.24 million square kilometres around the north pole, beating the previous record low, from 2007, by 27,000 square kilometres. That's the least amount of ice since tracking of levels began in 1972, but researchers at the University of Bremen's Institute of Physical Analysis, which monitors ice levels, says it's probably the least since the last ice age ended about 8,000 years ago. While the receding ice is great news for shipping and mineral exploration (the Northwest Passage is almost completely ice-free! Drill, baby, Drill!), that's not the case for the people the arctic animals who call the region home (polar bears, notably), nor for our long-term prospects on this planet, as the researchers say that the melting ice is, almost beyond a doubt, due to “man-made global warming.”