Rising sea levels across the world may mean that all of the Arctic ice may be free by 2030, scientists have warned urging immediate action to tackle climate change.
According to a report in ENN (Environmental News Network), researchers were astounded when, in the fall of 2007, they discovered that the year-round ice pack in the Arctic Ocean had lost some 20 percent of its mass in just two years, setting a new record low since satellite imagery began documenting the terrain in 1978.
This massive reduction has allowed an ice-free shipping lane to open through the fabled Northwest Passage along northern Canada, Alaska and Greenland.
While the shipping industry, which now has easy northern access between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, may be cheering this "natural" development, scientists worry about the impact of the resulting rise in sea levels around the world.
With about a third of the world's population living within 300 feet of an ocean coastline, sea level rise is a big deal.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, made up of leading climate scientists, sea levels have risen some 3.1 millimeters per year since 1993.
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) reports that low-lying island nations, especially in equatorial regions, have been hardest hit by this phenomenon, and some are threatened with total disappearance. Rising seas have already swallowed up two uninhabited islands in the Central Pacific.