lightblueline

Scientists at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union presented a new warning on global climate change. "Global warming could melt the Arctic's ice during the summer as early as 2040, raising serious environmental as well as commercial and strategic issues, experts said on Monday.
'The effects of greenhouse warming are starting to rear their ugly head,' said Mark Serreze, a scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
Marika Holland, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, projects a slow, steady decline of Arctic ice as global warming continues, with a dramatic 'tipping point' in about two decades.
The research, to be published by the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters on Tuesday, found that the extent of sea ice each September could be reduced so abruptly that, within about 20 years, it may begin retreating four times faster than at any time in the observed record.
'The ice is actually quite stable until 2025 and then boom, it goes,' Holland told the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco."

You can read the full report here:

Arctic ice may all melt in summer by 2040 - study

December 11, 2006. San Francisco (Reuters)

ADDITIONAL information from the NSIDC:

Sea Ice Decline Intensifies