The coastal climate is sensitive to variations in sea ice and there is a substantial variability from one location to another. At the coasts three of the important indicators of climate are now at extreme values. If this is successful, recent events in the Antarctic Peninsula could be put into better perspective. Over even longer time periods, the Earth experienced very large climate shifts as ice ages came and went. Until we can understand the causes of these changes, climate models must be incomplete, and they could miss important processes.
Ice cores drilled through several kilometres of ice can provide the longer perspective.
Some important research seldom attracts the media and never becomes a science bite . One example is the impact of climate change on the marine ecosystem of the Southern Ocean. Overall, sea ice here has not declined in the last 25 years. The impacts of the variability on the Southern Ocean ecosystem are large. Interplay between ocean circulation and sea ice extent determines the breeding success of some key plankton populations.