Is Climate Change Responsible For Melting Polar Ice?

See animation Courtesy of NASA

As temperatures rise, climatologists anticipate that the Arctic sea ice will shrink. According to a NASA estimate, the North Pole's ice cap has beenshrinking at a rate of nine percent per decade since the 1970s. If this trend continues, many scientists believe Arctic summer sea ice cover may completely disappear by 2050. This frozen platform is integral to the lives of a huge array of species, such as walrus, seals and polar bears, which feed, travel and breed on its vast expanses. Algae living under the sea ice are the foundation of an ocean food chain that supports plankton, copepods, fish, sea birds and mammals. Also, the average thickness of the sea ice has shrunk by 40 percent in the past three decades, jeopardizing the future of this web of life.