—and current scientific evidence suggests that extreme sea ice loss events like this will become more frequent and widespread."
Recent efforts to predict emperor penguin population trends from forecasts of sea ice loss have painted a bleak picture, showing that if present rates of warming persist, over 90% of colonies will be quasi-extinct by the end of this century. Dr. Caroline Holmes, a polar climate scientist at BAS, said,"Right now, in August 2023, the sea ice extent in Antarctica is still far below all previous records for this time of year. In this period where oceans are freezing up, we're seeing areas that are still, remarkably, largely ice-free."