Photo: Arctic sea ice sinks to record low

The word from the Remote Sensing Images unit at the University of Bremen’s Institute of Environmental Physics is that Arctic sea ice cover reached its lowest ever since 1972, when satellite records started, on Sept. 8. The extent of the Arctic sea ice was 4.240 million square kilometres, a new “historic minimum,” the institute said. The U.S.-based National Snow and Ice Data Center hasn’t yet announced its read on the 2011 Arctic sea extent, although the center said last week that a new record low, lower than 2007, was a possibility. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)