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This month, NASA scientists reported sea ice continues to decline by a remarkable six percent a year. "This amount of Arctic sea ice reduction the past two consecutive winters has not taken place before during the 27 years satellite data has been available," said Joey Comiso, a research scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "In the past, sea ice reduction in winter was significantly lower per decade compared to summer sea ice retreat. What's remarkable is that we've witnessed sea ice reduction at six percent per year over just the last two winters, most likely a result of warming due to greenhouse gases."

While sea ice decline does not contribute to sea level rise (any more than ice melting in a glass of water changes the level of the water), the regions where this decline of sea ice is occuring are proximal to Greenland and other places where ice melt would contribute to sea level rise.

Also, the reduction of sea ice has serious consequences to the local and global ecology, as sea ice supports phytoplankton, the base level for the food chain for marine mammals and other species.

You can read the entire NASA press release here:
Arctic Ice Meltdown Continues With Significantly Reduced Winter Ice Cover