UN SOUNDS ALARM OVER RECORD ARCTIC ICE MELT

GENEVA: The Arctic’s sea ice melted at a record pace in 2012, the ninth-hottest year on record, compounding concerns about climate change underscored by extreme weather such as Hurricane Sandy, the United Nations (UN) weather agency said on Thursday. In a report on the situation in 2012, the World Meterological Organization (WMO) said that during the August to September melting season, the Arctic’s sea ice cover was just 3.4 million square kilometers—a full 18 percent less than the previous record low set in 2007. WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud dubbed it a “disturbing sign of climate change.” The WMO said that the 2012 global land and ocean surface temperature was estimated to be 0.45 degrees Celsius above the 1961-1990 average of 14.0 degrees C. That marked the ninth warmest year since records began in 1850 and the 27th consecutive year that the global land and ocean temperatures were above the 1961-1990 average, it underlined.

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