ClimateWatch.org

The minister for Taiwan's Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), Chen Chung-hsin, met with US environment and energy officials in Washington DC on Friday. That's despite complaints from China.

Chen said he was able to meet and exchange views on climate change with several officials from the Bush administration. He also told a press conference that almost every US official he met said they had received a protest from the Chinese embassy over the meeting.

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - There was less sea ice in the Arctic on Friday than ever before on record, and the melting is continuing, the National Snow and Ice Data Center reported.

"Today is a historic day," said Mark Serreze, a senior research scientist at the center. "This is the least sea ice we've ever seen in the satellite record and we have another month left to go in the melt season this year."

Satellite measurements showed 2.02 million square miles of ice in the Arctic, falling below the Sept. 21, 2005, record minimum of 2.05 million square miles, the agency said.

Sea ice is particularly low in the East Siberian side of the Arctic and the Beaufort Sea north of Alaska, the center reported.

Ice in the Canadian Archipelago is also quite low. Along the Atlantic side of the Arctic Ocean, sea ice extent is not as unusually low, but there is still less than normal, according to the center located in Boulder, Colo.