The European Union's climate monitoring agency, the Copernicus Climate Change Service, released a report on the 8th stating that Arctic sea ice coverage dropped to its lowest level on record for the same period in March this year, making March the second hottest month on record globally. The report shows that the Arctic sea ice coverage in March this year fell to the lowest level in 47 years recorded by satellite, which is 6% lower than the historical average level in March; Meanwhile, due to the Arctic sea ice reaching its annual maximum in March, the just passed month also saw the lowest annual maximum on record for Arctic sea ice coverage. The coverage of Antarctic sea ice reached its fourth lowest level on record for the same period in March, 24% lower than the average level in March. According to this report, March this year was the second hottest March on record worldwide. In that month, the global average surface temperature was 14.06 degrees Celsius, which was 1.60 degrees Celsius higher than the pre industrial average (1850-1900), making it the 20th month in the past 21 months where the global average surface temperature was 1.5 degrees Celsius or more higher than pre industrial levels. The data also shows that during the 12-month period from April 2024 to March 2025, the global average surface temperature was 0.71 degrees Celsius higher than the average level from 1991 to 2020, and 1.59 degrees Celsius higher than pre industrial levels. In addition, the average surface temperature in Europe in March this year was 6.03 degrees Celsius, 2.41 degrees Celsius higher than the average temperature in Europe from 1991 to 2020, making it the hottest March on record in Europe. (New Society)