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The amount of Arctic sea ice has reached its annual minimum, barely 1.6 million square miles.
According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), this year's range is the second lowest ever recorded, on par with the minimum values achieved in 2007 and 2016.
Since the satellite records were kept from the late 1970s, the NSIDC reports that the 13 smallest sea ice minima have all occurred in the last 13 years. The lowest quantity ever recorded was in 2012, with sea ice falling to 1.37 million square miles.
The minimum area of sea ice has decreased by 12.8% per decade over the past 40 years, which scientists say is partly a consequence of climate change.
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Icefjord Ilulissat in Disko Bay, on the west coast of Greenland. (Martin Zwick / REDA & CO / Universal Pictures Group via Getty Images)
STUDY REALLY FINDS CATS RELATED TO HUMANS
According to a study published last month, sea ice in the Arctic could disappear completely every summer until September if the average global temperature only increased by two degrees Celsius.
"The ice is going out from June to September and then in September, it's starting to grow again on a seasonal cycle, and we're saying we could not have ice in September," Chang said in a statement.
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Scientists have said that carbon pollution warms the Arctic faster than the rest of the world, thus contributing to the melting of sea ice.
Skeptics largely dismissed fears of man's impact on global temperatures and argued that climate change has been going on since time immemorial. They also claim that the dangers of a warming planet are grossly exaggerated and question the impact of fossil fuels on climate change.
Chris Ciaccia of Fox News contributed to this story.
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