From LiveScience.com comes this rather alarming report on ice thickness at the North Pole, as scientists have discovered the region is covered entirely with first-year ice, not the layers of ice that are usually built up over years of freezing. What this means for the North Pole –where there is no land, only ice– is that for the first time in human history the pole could be reached by sailing through open water. One of the effects of this melt is the opening of the Northwest Passage, which allows for shipping lanes between Europe and Asia above Canada, and not the much longer journey through the Panama Canal.

Meanwhile, two Russian vessels reached the area last summer in an attempt to plant a flag on the Arctic seafloor and claim the now-accessible area which many believe holds large oil and natural gas reserves. Denmark, however, claims the area is an extension of its territories via Greenland

What everyone agrees on is that within a few decades the North Pole may have no ice at all, and that increase in water will effect coastlines worldwide.