It's a record low... peak. So it's not quite that scary, but it is bad. Spring has sprung and it's already receding from its peak (16.956 million km² at the peak, 1986's peak was 17.963 million km²). Currently standing at 16.656 million km², a shrinkage of 300,000 km² already.

nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/chartic-interactive-sea-ice-graph/

It's spring now so it's already started melting. The real problem will be in Feb/March.

I personally blocked it because I find the bot annoying, which is why you don't see it on my posts.

Be nice if I had a tool to mute it so that I don't have to look at the bot but others can.

I sent the article through Google Bard to summarize:

Antarctica just hit a record low in sea ice, with the annual maximum coverage being 398,000 square miles lower than the previous record low set in 1986. Scientists are concerned that this may be the beginning of a long-term trend of decline for Antarctic sea ice, since oceans are warming globally. Sea ice around the polar regions plays a critical part in protecting the adjacent ice sheets. Less sea ice means less sunlight will be reflected back to space, causing waters to warm more and destabilize surrounding ice and glaciers. Coastlines are also much more exposed with less sea ice, removing a buffer that could help protect melting ice shelves or ice sheets. Scientists have long seen these downward sea ice declines and effects in the Arctic, and now they think Antarctica is hitting a turning point much like the Arctic has. In just seven years, Antarctica has experienced three new record-breaking low sea ice summers. Antarctica has been showing responses to climate change in other ways as well. Antarctica and the Arctic are warming faster than the global average. Warmer ocean temperatures around the continent have caused major ice melt around the ice sheet, including destabilizing the Thwaites Glacier, which is about the size of Florida and contributes to 4 percent of annual global sea level rise. Moon said changes in how the ocean moves as well as the atmosphere have also become more apparent. Experts say that this is not great news, as polar ice is one of the world's biggest insurance policies against runaway climate change.

We had some discussion on that here: https://slrpnk.net/comment/2309795

Personally I am not a big fan of such bots as they usually just mangle up the article. But it is already on some of the communities here, so there is probably a way to invite it.