The Bearing14 Aug 2026· Arctic Ocean· 88°N 0°E
Twelve per cent a decade
Arctic September sea ice has shrunk 12.2% every decade since satellites began counting in 1979.
Every September the Arctic ice pack stops retreating and begins to freeze again. That turning point, the smallest the ice gets all year, is the number the field watches most closely, and satellites have measured it every year since 1979.
It is shrinking by 12.2 per cent per decade against the 1981–2010 average. Percentages are easy to skim, so it is worth putting plainly: the ice does not return to where it was. Each September's floor sits lower than the last, and the animals that spend their winter beneath that lid have less of it above them every year.
No amount of careful shopping reverses that number. But the arithmetic of replacement is the part that belongs to us: a thing bought twice was manufactured twice, shipped twice, and discarded twice, and the second one rarely lasts longer than the first. Buying once is a small lever against a large problem. It is also the only one that keeps working while you are asleep.
Source NASA Earth Indicators, Arctic Sea Ice Minimum Extent
Naarwhal makes one bag, the Forty