Arctic ice cap still at risk: NASA

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The polar ice cap over the Arctic Ocean was slightly bigger last month than in February of last year due to a harsher winter, but the ice sheet is still shrinking overall, NASA said Tuesday.

"It could be compared to a building in a movie: it looks OK, you see a building, but in fact it's a set, and behind the facade there is nothing," said Walter Meier, of the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

"In February, there was a slight recovery, surface area of ice was slightly higher than in the recent years, because of a colder than average winter, but ice area is only one parameter," he told a joint press conference with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) researchers.

"It is seasonal...