Artic System on trajectory to New State

Arctic System on Trajectory to New, Seasonally Ice-Free State

The Arctic system is moving toward a new
state that falls outside the envelope of glacialinterglacial
fluctuations that prevailed during
recent Earth history. This future Arctic is likely
to have dramatically less permanent ice than
exists at present. At the present rate of change, a
summer ice-free Arctic Ocean within a century
is a real possibility, a state not witnessed for at
least a million years. The change appears to be
driven largely by feedback-enhanced global
climate warming, and there seem to be few, if
any, processes or feedbacks within the Arctic
system that are capable of altering the trajectory
toward this “super interglacial” state.

Complete article: http://paos.colorado.edu/~dcn/reprints/Overpeck_etal_EOS2005.pdf