Worse than we thought: Remember when the Arctic was supposed to be ice-free *two* years from now? Now they're guessing *twenty* years from now

News - Environment: 'Sea ice is responding to global warming'

Mark Serreze, director of the NSIDC, warned the Arctic ice cover was shrinking year-round, with more ice melting in the spring and summer months and less ice forming in the fall and winter.

"The Arctic, like the globe as a whole, is warming up and warming up quickly, and we're starting to see the sea ice respond to that. Really, in all months, the sea ice cover is shrinking - there's an overall downward trend," Serreze told reporters.

"The extent of Arctic ice is dropping at something like 11 percent per decade - very quickly, in other words.

"Our thinking is that by 2030 or so, if you went out to the Arctic on the first of September, you probably won't see any ice at all. It will look like a blue ocean," he said.

Dec '07: Arctic Sea Ice Gone in Summer Within Five Years?: Seth Borenstein, AP

"The Arctic is screaming," said Mark Serreze, senior scientist at the government's snow and ice data center in Boulder, Colorado.

2012

Just last year two top scientists surprised their colleagues by projecting that the Arctic sea ice was melting so rapidly that it could disappear entirely by the summer of 2040.

This week, after reviewing his own new data, NASA climate scientist Jay Zwally said: "At this rate, the Arctic Ocean could be nearly ice-free at the end of summer by 2012, much faster than previous predictions."