What long-dead whalers can teach us about climate change

The researchers involved in the Old Weather project have not published any of their findings yet. But as Wood gathers more data and recreates ancient weather patterns with it one thing is becoming alarmingly clear for him.

“What’s happening to the whalers is very unlikely to happen now because there’s no ice,” he said. Amidst the musty log books are tales of dozens of ships crushed or sunk throughout the 1800s. NOAA is still uncovering the remnants of those shipwrecks in the Arctic today. But the days of ship-eating sea ice may be over.

“When you compare ships being crushed in September, you compare that to the satellite data that we have, there’s no ice there, and there’s hardly ever any ice there, and certainly not enough to crush a ship. That’s the difference,” Wood said. 

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/what-long-dead-whalers-can-teach-us-about-climate-change/