Greenhouse gas emissions raise atmospheric temperatures, causing Arctic ice to melt at an alarming rate. There has been a thirty-year downward trend in Arctic ice extent and the 2008 September low was 34% less ice than the long-term average from 1979 to 2000.

"The Arctic is a bellwether for change that is coming globally and is coming much faster than any of the models suggested it should," said David Barber, an ice specialist at the University of Manitoba.

Sea ice has a natural cooling effect as solar energy is reflected off its white surface. Ice loss increases energy absorption by dark ocean waters, altering the jet stream and global circulation patterns.