What science says

The problem 

The Arctic is warming 2.5 times faster than the rest of the world. Under all IPCC scenarios, even the most optimistic one, the Arctic Sea will be completely ice-free during the summer as soon as the 30’s or 40’s. Consequently, the Arctic will lose its power as a “global refrigerator” and regulator of global temperature. An ice-free summer will create a self-reinforcing feedback loop as the ice sheets will not be able to reflect the heat and energy of the sun (the Albedo effect). Instead, the dark ocean will absorb most of the heat which further accelerates the temperature increase of the Arctic Sea and the melting of the remaining ice.

The amplification of melting has many devastating consequences, such as further global warming, the potential release of vast methane reserves from under the seabed, accelerated melting of the Greenland ice sheet, and the increase of extreme weather events in the Northern Hemisphere. What happens in the Arctic, does not stay in the Arctic. The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) is a great resource with up-to-date information on the Arctic and Antarctic.