Still melting.

Global sea ice fell to a record low in February, scientists have said, a symptom of an atmosphere fouled by planet-heating pollutants.

The combined area of ice around the north and south poles hit a new daily minimum in early February and stayed below the previous record for the rest of the month, the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said on Thursday.

The fun thing about this is that it’s both a symptom and the thing itself. It’s a sign of warming and it is warming. A twofer.

Scientists had already observed an extreme heat anomaly in the north pole at the start of February, which caused temperatures to soar more than 20C above average and cross the threshold for ice to melt. They described the latest broken record as “particularly worrying” because ice reflects sunlight and cools the planet.

“The lack of sea ice means darker ocean surfaces and the ability of the Earth to absorb more sunlight, which accelerates the warming,” said Mika Rantanen, a climate scientist at the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

Quick tip: accelerating the warming is not helpful.

Richard Allan, a climate scientist at the University of Reading, said the long-term prognosis for Arctic sea ice was grim.

“The region continues to rapidly heat up, and can only be saved with rapid and massive cuts to greenhouse gas emissions,” he said. “That will also limit the growing severity of weather extremes and long-term sea level rise across the world.”

Would. Not will, but would. That’s the problem. It’s never will, it’s always would. We can’t do the will part.