While a number of people continue to deny that humans are responsible for the Earth getting warmer, it's hard to avoid the fact that global temperatures are indeed increasing. Just take a look at the Arctic Ocean, where scientists say ice levels will be at their lowest modern levels ever within a week or two.
Prior to this year, the record smallest size of the Arctic ice cap was 4.25 million square kilometers. While the current ice cap isn't quite at those levels — the last estimate was 5.09 million square kilometers — levels continue to drop sharply by as much as 100,000 square kilometers per day. Ice levels will continue to drop through the end of the melting season, which is approximately two weeks from now. And even if the ice melt ceased immediately, the current level would still mark the third lowest on record.
Unfortunately, Arctic ice melt is a vicious cycle. According to National Snow and Ice Data Center Director Mark Serrez, "the ice now is so thin in the spring, just because of the general pattern of warming, that large parts of the pack ice just can't survive the summer melt season anymore."
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