The seasonal shrinking of the sea ice over the North Pole is one of the most visible symptoms of the gradual warming of the planet. Over the last several years—as temperatures in the Arctic have warmed even faster than they have throughout the rest of the planet—ice has been melting quickly.
In September 2007 the Arctic sea ice hit a minimum of 1.608 million sq. mi.—an all-time low since record-keeping began more than 50 years ago. So much sea ice had melted that the fabled Northwest Passage—an Arctic shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans—briefly opened up for the first time in human memory.
On September 15 scientists at the University of Colorado's National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) announced that the 2011 Arctic sea ice extent fell to 1.67 million sq. mi., the second-lowest level on record.
source: time
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