‘Record-low’: Fears as Antarctica melts at rapid pace

Our precious polar continent is losing a devastating amount of its sea ice, threatening our planet’s climate more every day.

Antarctica has lost an alarming amount of sea ice in the last decade, estimated to be around 2 million square kilometres, enough to cover the entire area of Greenland.

This ice has not returned, marking one of the most significant environmental changes of the past decade.

The National Snow and Ice Data Center published an article titled The Great Unfreezing, documenting the 47-year satellite record-low in Antarctic sea ice reached earlier this year.

On March 1, 2025, sea ice extent measured approximately 1.98 million square kilometres.

This marks the fourth consecutive year that sea ice has dropped below 2 million square kilometres.

Since 2002, Antarctica has been losing ice at an average rate of 136 gigatons per year.

As Antarctic ice melts, it releases large volumes of freshwater into the ocean.

This disrupts the balance of salinity and temperature, slowing down the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), the world’s strongest ocean current.

The slowing of the ACC can have serious global consequences, impacting climate systems, altering weather patterns, and threatening marine ecosystems.

Antarctica has lost 2 million square kilometres in 11 years. Picture: Getty

To break it down, the ocean begins to release more heat into the atmosphere, intensifying storms, accelerating global warming, triggering extreme heatwaves, and driving sea level rise worldwide.

The ACC also works as a barrier to invasive species reaching the continent.

Warmer waters could allow mussels, barnacles, and certain predatory crabs to move in, organisms not native to Antarctic ecosystems.

These invaders could disrupt the delicate food system by changing the availability of key food sources for penguins and other polar wildlife, pushing vulnerable species closer to extinction.

Researchers from the University of Melbourne and Norway’s NORCE Research Centre warn that, under a high-emissions scenario, the ACC could slow by up to 20 per cent by 2050.

“The ocean is extremely complex and finely balanced.

If this current “engine” breaks down, there could be severe consequences, it’s feared.

“These could include more climate variability, with greater extremes in certain regions, and accelerated global warming due to a reduction in the ocean’s capacity to act as a carbon sink,” Associate Professor Gayen warns.

Global warming is causing ice to melt three times faster than normal. Picture: AFP

Last month, climate lawyers sued the New Zealand government for its lack of climate plan. Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson issued a press release on July 7 criticising their withdrawal from climate commitments.

She stressed the unprecedented rate Antarctica is melting at, labelling it “a clear and urgent signal that a critical tipping point may have already been passed.

“It’s not a distant threat to think about somewhere down the line, it’s here. The government is failing us all in the name of short-term profit.”

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January, initiating the process to withdraw from the Paris Agreement for the second time, an international accord that aimed to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees celsius.

In addition to this, several countries, including the UK and some EU member states, have also rolled back domestic environmental regulations, cut funding for renewable energy and climate research, and expanded fossil fuel production.

While Australia has committed to the Antarctic Treaty System, with a 20 year action plan, expert Professor Matt King from the Australia Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science expresses concerns related to funding and infrastructure.

He warns that Australia may be underprepared.

“It’s not a distant threat to think about somewhere down the line, it’s here.” Picture: Getty

Earth’s rotation slows down and speeds up slightly over time, so scientists occasionally add or subtract leap seconds to keep our clocks synchronised with the planet’s actual rotation.

But a study published in Nature reveals that melting polar ice may slow Earth’s rotation enough to delay this critical timekeeping event.

“As the polar ice melts and the water shifts toward the equator, it redistributes Earth’s mass in a way that slows rotation,” Professor Duncan Agnew, the study’s lead author, explained.

This is, by extension, affecting the precision of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) system used worldwide, and making the day longer.

According to CNN, scientists are calling this a striking example of how the climate crisis is disrupting the world.

“Part of figuring out what is going to happen in global timekeeping is dependent on understanding what is happening with the global warming effect,” Prof Agnew said.

“Nobody really anticipated that the Earth would speed up to the point where we might have to remove a leap second.

“Being able to say so much ice has melted that it’s actually changed the rotation of the Earth by a measurable amount, I think gives you the sense, OK, this is a big deal.”

A UN Climate Change Conference participant holds a sign reading "Where is my home?" Picture: Getty

This damning update comes just a couple months after social media erupted into debate after findings revealed that the Antarctic Ice Sheet had gone through record-breaking growth after decades of loss.

A study published in Science China Earth Sciences found that between 2021 and 2023 the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) grew by an unprecedented amount.

The report says that between 2021 and 2023, the ice sheet grew by almost 108 gigatons (or 108 billion metric tons) of ice per year.

The reason for the rise was reportedly due to an unusual increase in precipitation, particularly in East Antarctica, leading to an accumulation of snow and ice.

But reports clearly show that recent failures to address climate change is directly accelerating the factors causing our precious icy continent to disappear.

“We depend on a stable climate for the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat and the materials for life-the things of true value,” Marama Davidson implores us to remember.