Watch the Arctic melt away as the Earth warms

Climate scientist Ed Hawkins releases latest in series of gifs illustrating the rapid collapse in Arctic sea ice since the late 1970s

Gyldenlove Glacier, Greenland (Pic: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)

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Global sea ice levels hit a new low in 2016.

In the Arctic scientists reckon diminishing floating ice levels around the North Pole are a direct result of warming temperatures and extreme weather events linked to climate change.

Ed Hawkins, a climate scientist at Reading University, has captured the collapse in Arctic ice in the latest of his viral gifs (check out his 2016 global temperatures visual here).

According to recently release data from leading climate monitoring agencies, 2016 was the hottest year on record, 1.1C above the pre industrial average.

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