Reports Disagree on Arctic Ice Coverage; Agree It’s Melting Faster Than Usual – International Business Times http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/213913/20110914/global-warming-arctic-ice-melting.htm

“This stunning loss of Arctic sea ice is yet another wake-up call that climate change is here now and is having devastating effects around the world,” Shaye Wolf, climate science director at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute, said to journalists recently.

Compared to 1972, when the data was first being observed, the rate of decline is twice as fast. A recent assessment report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change indicated in 30-40 years, the Arctic could be largely ice free. The last time this happened? 125,000 years ago.

“The sea ice retreat can no more be explained with the natural variability from one year to the next, caused by weather influence,” stated Georg Heygster, head of the Institute’s Physical Analysis of Remote Sensing Images Unit. “Climate models show, rather, that the reduction is related to the man-made global warming which, due to the albedo effect, is particularly pronounced in the Arctic.”