Arctic ice at third smallest area on record

This week, it was announced by NASA that Arctic ice is melting at a quickening pace. Is this part of earth’s natural cycle or is this warming accelerated by human interference? Regardless of your beliefs on global warming, the footage below is concurrently beautiful and heartbreaking.

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Polar bears are a threatened species due to a loss of their sea ice habitat. As more ice melts, they are drowning because they are unable to swim the great distances between ice floes and land.

The melting along the edges of the ice sheets is accelerating, causing a cycle of further ice melting. The more the ice melts, the more water surrounds and eats away at the remaining ice.

New satellite information show that ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are shrinking faster than scientists originally thought.